Do you keep print journals or trash them?

[Mountain Cow]

So I subscribe to 6 or 7 journals (3 or so in my field of interest and 3 general medical journals, JAMA, Lancet, NEJM).

I get all of these online for free (through school), but I find that I am able to keep up to date better and usually read more if I have the actual journal sent to my home (student rate is usually cheap).

My question is not if I should subscribe to these, but if I should keep them. I'm kind of a "minimalist" and don't like accumulating things, but it is hard to throw them out. Do you think these will ever come in handy or is there value to having a collection of print journals? Thanks

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[solitude]

So I subscribe to 6 or 7 journals (3 or so in my field of interest and 3 general medical journals, JAMA, Lancet, NEJM).

I get all of these online for free (through school), but I find that I am able to keep up to date better and usually read more if I have the actual journal sent to my home (student rate is usually cheap).

My question is not if I should subscribe to these, but if I should keep them. I'm kind of a "minimalist" and don't like accumulating things, but it is hard to throw them out. Do you think these will ever come in handy or is there value to having a collection of print journals? Thanks

Some reasons to keep them are the following:

-they're in color, and if you look up a paper later it can be hard to find a color printer, color ink can cost more, etc. Color is key for reading many figures, and even a version printed in color won't be as sharp as the actual journal page on that glossy paper.
-it can be easier to just pull a journal off of your shelf than to look up the paper on Pubmed, open the PDF, print it off, etc.
-having a bunch of them will make your office pimp when you're older
-when you retire or just accumulate too many, you can donate them to a library in the 3rd world that could really use them

I personally like to be surrounded by print books and journals. It's reassuring, for whatever reason. But I am definitely a packrat rather than a "minimalist". Do what you want.

 

[Circumflex]

Trash 'em. They take up too much room and when you go to move, you'll want them gone. Plus, NEJM and others are 50% pharmaceutical adds. If I find a really kick a$$ review or paper, I will tear it out and file it. Most of the time when I want to save an article, I will just download the .pdf online.

 

[strangeglove]

Save a tree. Go online.

 

[hawkeey]

Cut out the ones you need and file it away in a filing cabinet so you can find it again. Alternately note the articles in EndNote and just reference the electronic versions.

It's really not worth it carrying all around. You'll end up with boxes up them that you drag around everyone... that's what my father did and those boxes are pretty heavy.

 

[Mountain Cow]

Thanks for the responses.

Now that I am thinking about how much I actually go back to them (hardly ever) I think I can muster up the courage to let them go. Especially since I will be moving soon.

 

[j-weezy]

just make sure that if you trash them - at least recycle them! or see if anyone you know wants them......

wooo recycling!!!!

 

[solitude]

Cut out the ones you need and file it away in a filing cabinet so you can find it again. Alternately note the articles in EndNote and just reference the electronic versions.

It's really not worth it carrying all around. You'll end up with boxes up them that you drag around everyone... that's what my father did and those boxes are pretty heavy.

It was my job to carry all of those boxes last time that we moved , but the study is pimp.

 

[CatsandCradles]

I say you should trash them.

If you need to get a hold of a hard copy, look it up online, and then go to your medical school's library and find it there. Every school has years and years of the NEJM or JAMA - all the original issues are hard copied and bounded in books.

 

[Dr.Watson]

.

 

[solitude]

"I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany."

haha you left out the first two great parts of that line: "I'm kind of a big deal. People know me. I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany."

 

[qwopty99]

sell them on ebay.

u might not get much (probably not much more than the shipping cost), but at least they'll go to someone who wants them.

i for instance, would be interested on bidding on such a lot.