The cause and effect that led to the enormous growth of research journals during the past few decades are analyzed. These factors seem to have contributed to the financial pressure on the academic library system and the ‘publishing pressure’ on the researchers. Overall, the higher educational system in chemistry, as well as all sciences and humanities, seem to have been affected. Printing practices of a few research journals, mostly in chemistry and chemical engineering, are compared in terms of price per standardized page which indicate that savings of several million dollars should be possible worldwide through a coherent effort of the various members of the research community. Certain simple propositions to cut down the volume of publications have been discussed. More propositions are likely to be put forward by those who start to think about journal proliferation and the underlying issues.