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ARCHIVED PROJECT: OXFORD JOURNALS

The OU Libraries reviewed Oxford University Press journal commitments in 2014.  The review was designed to realign journal commitments based on community needs, usage data and content availability.  Collectively these publisher-based commitments are known as "Big Deals" and they have driven much of OU and the academic library community's purchasing decisions for over a decade.

The following methodology was used to generate data utilized in the Oxford journals project:

  • Journal usage statistics for 2011-2013 were collected from Oxford and overlapping databases
  • Current journal list prices were collected
  • Cost per use was determined by taking current electronic-only list price for each journal and dividing it by a 3-year average of usage
  • All journals were ranked from high to low on average usage
  • All journals were ranked from low to high on average cost per use
  • Rankings were added together to provide a combined score, ordered lowest (best) to highest

In addition to the ranking described above, the following data points were also considered in developing the proposed maintained title list:

  • Curricular and research needs
  • Review of journals by broad subject categories (arts & humanities, social sciences, science, medicine) to assure all categories receive a portion of funds committed
  • Alternate availability of journals via full text databases or free delayed access

OXFORD USAGE DATA AND ONGOING SUBSCRIPTIONS

A complete list of Oxford journals available through December 2014, and their cost per use data, is available for download in an Excel file.  

The final maintained Oxford title list is available for download, as is the final list of non-maintained titles.  

The 2014 Oxford review presentation slides are also available.