Monograph and Serial Costs in ARL Libraries 1986-2015
Publisher Profit Margins
According to a recent presentation by library colleagues at the University of Virginia, publisher profit margins are competitive with tech companies, banks, and pharmaceutical firms:
- Pfizer (pharmaceuticals): 42%
- Elsevier (publisher): 39%
- Apple (technology): 37%
- Taylor & Francis (publisher): 36%
- Springer-Nature (publisher): 35%
- Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (banking): 29%
- Wiley (publisher): 28%
Much scholarly journal content is written, peer-reviewed and edited by university scholars, then sold back to universities by publishers.
Annual journal subscription increases regularly exceed the CPI.
Journal Usage Patterns
Research on COUNTER usage data indicates tht double-counting may occur; for example, when a reader navigates to an article web page, and subsequently downloads a PDF of the article, that is counted as two downloads, whereas in practice it is only one.
Big Deals increase the number of academic journals to which libraries have immediate access. That increase, however, usually includes a substantial number of journals that receive comparatively little use. In most fields, only a small minority of journals is highly read and highly cited by scholars: research consistently finds that as few as 20% of available journals receive 80% of all use.
NATIONAL TRENDS
- Death by 1,000 Cuts: Periodicals Price Survey 2018Most recent edition of an annual survey of periodicals pricing.
- SPARC: Big Deal Cancellation TrackingA partial list of institutions that have cancelled big deals.
- Leaving the "Big Deal"...Five Years LaterSouthern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) and the University of Oregon each withdrew from several Big Deals with major commercial journal publishers from 2008 to 2010. This article provides updated analysis of the impact of their decisions.
- University of Montreal CommuniqueCancellation of subscriptions to 2,116 Springer journals.
- Responding to Unsustainable Journal Costs: A CARL BriefCanadian Association of Research Librries brief providing an overview for university administrators of the current problematic state of scholarly journal costs, and proposes some recommendations to address the situation.
SERIALS PROJECTS AT OTHER CAMPUSES
- Equitable Access, Public Stewardship, and Access to Scholarly InformationDescribes the decision to cancel the Wiley deal for the 23 campuses of the California State University system.
- Libraries Abandon Expensive 'Big Deal' Subscription Packages to Multiple JournalsChronicle of Higher Education article describing the experience of the University of Oregon and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in leaving the Big Deal.
- NMSU Library Cancellation ProjectsOutlines multiple cancellation projects undertaken between 2011 and 2017.
- No Big DealLibrary Journal article covering Big Deal cancellations at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, University of Oregon, and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.