Cost Of Journal Subscriptions Research Articles

Assessing the Value of Subscription Journal Packages and Open Access Journal Articles in a Community College Context

Introduction: Academic libraries are facing two trends: the rising cost of journal subscriptions—the ongoing ‘serials crisis’—and the increasing availability of scholarly journal articles through free, open access channels. Methods: This study analyzed the bibliographies from 116 research projects created by students across disciplines at a small community college, and classified citations to journal articles based on the simplest way students could have accessed them. Results: more than 60% of the scholarly journal articles that students used are available to them for free, while an additional 18% are available through state-sponsored database subscriptions available to any Massachusetts resident. Only 17% of the journal articles used were available to students solely through the library’s database packages, and more than half of those articles were used by students in the ADN nursing program. Discussion: These findings call into question the value of expensive subscription databases to community college libraries and suggest a pattern of diminishing return on investment and value. The trend towards cancellation of ‘big deal’ journal packages at large institutions addresses similar concerns, though the dynamics are somewhat different at small institutions. Conclusion: The paper concludes by suggesting some steps that small academic libraries might take to adapt to this changing publishing environment, in the areas of collection development and information literacy instruction, in order to better serve students.

Scholarly Community towards Open Source

Scholarly communities are increasingly adopting open source practices in various areas including software, publishing and data analysis. The focus of this article is on the shift towards open source publication, specifically open access publication. Open access publication refers to the practice of making research articles and other scientific outputs freely available to the public through open access repositories or open-access journals. This practice has many benefits including increased visibility, improved access, enhanced collaboration, greater accountability, enhanced education and public understanding. The move towards open access has been driven by various factors including the proliferation of the internet, funder and policymaker requirements, concerns about high journal subscription costs and the availability of open access publishing platforms. Challenges to the adoption of open access include the need for a cultural shift and the potential for loss of income for some publishers. Despite these challenges, open access has the potential to transform the way that research is shared and disseminated, leading to greater impact and collaboration in the scientific community.

Ratios for Evaluating Full-Text Journal Article Access: A Quantitative Study

ABSTRACT This article proposes a methodology for systematically assessing the cost of journal subscriptions. The authors of the paper (hereafter “the researchers”) established ratios comparing the list costs of journal articles as advertised by publishers against the cost per article of journal articles available in aggregated collections in library databases (hereafter “aggregating databases”). The researchers propose that the ratios can be used by libraries wishing to apply a standard methodology for assessing journal packages containing full-text articles. The study may be helpful for those librarians who seek to supplement qualitative information and other quantitative data, such as usage statistics, in order to demonstrate the library's rationale for providing journal access either by purchasing articles directly from a publisher as needed or by continuing to subscribe to an aggregating database. The aggregating databases reviewed in this study included representative aggregating databases commonly associated with the following fields of study: Social Sciences, Humanities, and Health Sciences; however, the methodology described in this article could be applied to other disciplines as well. The results of the study indicated that the ratios for Mean Cost/Package Subscription Price (MC/PSP), Median Cost/Package Subscription Price (MED/PSP) could be used in evaluating journal collections. The researchers suggest that future studies should be conducted to assess resource sharing and the availability of open access resource versions of articles as possible contributing factors to the purchase decisions associated with scholarly journal articles.

Stony Brook University Author Perspectives on Article Processing Charges

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of Stony Brook University (SBU) author perspectives on article processing charges (APCs). Publishing an article without restrictions, also known as open access publishing, can be a costly endeavor. Many publishers charge APCs ranging from hundredsto thousands of dollars to publish an article without access restrictions. Authors who cannot obtain funding from grant agencies or their institution must pay APCs on their own. Do APCs fundamentally impact how authors choose their preferred publication venues? METHODS A cross-sectional survey was designed to learn SBU author perspectives on, and concerns about, APCs. RESULTS Responses mainly came from the sciences. Many SBU authors preferred to publish in a prestigious journal or journal of their choice rather than in an open access journal. Most authors published their articles in open access journals even if they were required to pay APCs. Many authors found that it was difficult finding funding for APCs and some expressed their concerns about the double charging practice. DISCUSSION SBU authors might believe that publishing in established and prestigious journals could secure their career’s advancement. Authors who chose to pay open access journals with APCs might be following publishing criteria. Libraries can encourage authors to negotiate with publishers to obtain a discount or waiver of APCs, when possible. Institutions should negotiate shifting journal subscription costs toward hybrid open access publishing. CONCLUSION Data will be used to inform how the SBU Libraries can help authors locate funding opportunities for APCs.

Too Long; Didn't Read: The Case for Academic Zines

Too Long; Didn't Read: The Case for Academic Zines

The Open Access Citation Advantage: Does It Exist and What Does It Mean for Libraries?

The last literature review of research on the existence of an Open Access Citation Advantage (OACA) was published in 2011 by Philip M. Davis and William H. Walters. This paper reexamines the conclusions reached by Davis and Walters by providing a critical review of OACA literature that has been published 2011, and explores how increases in OA publication trends could serve as a leveraging tool for libraries against the high costs of journal subscriptions.

Socially just publishing: implications for geographers and their journals

There have been a range of protests against the high journal subscription costs, and author processing charges (APCs) levied for publishing in the more prestigious and commercially run journals that are favoured by geographers. But open protests across the sector like the ‘Academic Spring’ of 2012, and challenges to commercial copyright agreements, have been fragmented and less than successful. I renew the argument for ‘socially just’ publishing in geography. For geographers this is not limited to choosing alternative publication venues. It also involves a considerable effort by senior faculty members that are assessing hiring and promotion cases, to read and assess scholarship independently of its place of publication, and to reward the efforts of colleagues that offer their work as a public good. Criteria other than the citation index and prestige of a journal need to be foregrounded. Geographers can also be publishers, and I offer my experience editing the free online Journal of Political Ecology.

A “Gold‐centric” implementation of open access: Hybrid journals, the “Total cost of publication,” and policy development in the UK and beyond

This paper reports analysis of data from higher education institutions in the UK on their experience of the open‐access (OA) publishing market working within a policy environment favoring “Gold” OA (OA publishing in journals). It models the “total cost of publication”—comprising costs of journal subscriptions, OA article‐processing charges (APCs), and new administrative costs—for a sample of 24 institutions. APCs are shown to constitute 12% of the “total cost of publication,” APC administration, 1%, and subscriptions, 87% (for a sample of seven publishers). APC expenditure in institutions rose between 2012 and 2014 at the same time as rising subscription costs. There was disproportionately high take up of Gold options for Health and Life Sciences articles. APC prices paid varied widely, with a mean APC of £1,586 in 2014. “Hybrid” options (subscription journals also offering OA for individual articles on payment of an APC) were considerably more expensive than fully OA titles, but the data indicate a correlation between APC price and journal quality (as reflected in the citation rates of journals). The policy implications of these developments are explored, particularly in relation to hybrid OA and potential of offsetting subscription and APC costs.

Considering Non-Open Access Publication Charges in the “Total Cost of Publication”

Recent research has tried to calculate the “total cost of publication” in the British academic sector, bringing together the costs of journal subscriptions, the article processing charges (APCs) paid to publish open-access content, and the indirect costs of handling open-access mandates. This study adds an estimate for the other publication charges (predominantly page and colour charges) currently paid by research institutions, a significant element which has been neglected by recent studies. When these charges are included in the calculation, the total cost to institutions as of 2013/14 is around 18.5% over and above the cost of journal subscriptions—11% from APCs, 5.5% from indirect costs, and 2% from other publication charges. For the British academic sector as a whole, this represents a total cost of publication around £213 million against a conservatively estimated journal spend of £180 million, with non-APC publication charges representing around £3.6 million. A case study is presented to show that these costs may be unexpectedly high for individual institutions, depending on disciplinary focus. The feasibility of collecting this data on a widespread basis is discussed, along with the possibility of using it to inform future subscription negotiations with publishers.

Open access: What price affordability?

Open access: What price affordability?

The Road to Everywhere

The Road to Everywhere

Open Access to STM Information: Trends, Models, and Strategies for Libraries (review)

Reviewed by: Open Access to STM Information: Trends, Models, and Strategies for Libraries Steven Van Tuyl Open Access to STM Information: Trends, Models, and Strategies for Libraries, ed. Anthi Katsirikou. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011. 207p. $150 (ISBN 978-3-11-025328-3) Open Access to STM Information: Trends, Models, and Strategies for Libraries, edited by Anthi Katsirikou, is a compilation of short papers from the 2010 IFLA Satellite Pre-Conference in Chania, Crete, Greece, loosely on the subject of open access in academic and research libraries. Open access (OA) is an area of increasing interest for academic libraries, given rising journal subscription costs and ethical considerations about double-dipping (requiring libraries to pay for access to research that was funded by taxpayer money). The OA movement has gained publicity, and possibly momentum, after recent attempts to legislatively restrict access to taxpayer-funded research information and the subsequent high-profile boycott of Elsevier. These events have put open access back on the radar of many academic libraries, specifically as it relates to scientific information resources. This suggests that Katsirikou's collection will be of interest to academic librarians looking for new ideas in providing open access to scientific information. Open Access to STM Information is divided into subject sections titled Best Practices and Management; Open Your Society; Repository, Journals, Publications, and Publishing; Services and Technology; and Quality and Evaluation. The articles span a range of topics including case studies, position papers, and semi-quantitative research. The best of these articles provide unique perspectives on the implementation of OA principles in libraries or discuss the interface between open access and other library services like marketing and public services. The authors of many of these papers come to the material from institutions outside of the United States and Western Europe and provide a window into cultural issues related to dealing with open access content. For instance, the collection includes articles discussing social impacts of open access to cultural heritage information in Indonesia and infrastructure issues in developing OA repositories in other countries. These topics are important to our overall understanding of the implications of open access policies and planning in environments that are not typically discussed in the literature. Open Access to STM Information could have benefitted from a much heavier editorial hand. Leaving aside problems with presentation of figures and typesetting, it does not flow smoothly from paper to paper or section to section. Content is often off topic and where discussions are on topic, the treatment is often superficial, rarely delving into the labyrinth of issues that necessarily surround open access. The text also lacks suitable bookends to hold the content together by leading the reader into the collection and then drawing the collection to a close. The editor does provide a short introductory paper that attempts to contextualize the book, but it could do more to set the stage for the papers that follow. All in all, this volume approaches important open access issues as they relate to STM information but could have explored these issues with more depth and nuance. Steven Van Tuyl Carnegie Mellon University svantuyl@andrew.cmu.edu Copyright © 2012 The Johns Hopkins University Press

A Reprise, Or Round Three: Using a Database Management Program as a Decision-Support System for the Cancellation of Serials

Annual journal inflation rates of eight percent or higher have compelled libraries to cancel journals. Since 1992 Purdue Libraries have had three major cancellation projects. This article reviews how the Humanities, Social Science and Education Library approached this task in 2009 and developed a database management program to identify titles based on two criteria: low use and the availability of the title in full text in one of three aggregator databases. The education and humanities departments reached the cancellation goal, but several social science departments had to transfer funds from the book budget to accommodate their journal subscription costs. This indicates the importance of the journal to research in these areas.

The Crisis in Scholarly Communication, Part I: Understanding the Issues and Engaging Your Faculty

Given the rising costs of journal subscriptions and the difficulty that authors have in retaining rights to their own works, reform in the scholarly publishing industry is needed. This article, the first in a two-part series, presents an overview of the crisis in scholarly communication and discusses the groundwork that must be laid in order to develop successful programs to address the crisis on college and university campuses. As the de facto centers of scholarship and research on campus, libraries must educate faculty and advocate for more sustainable publishing models. Programs developed by the Boston Library Consortium and its member institutions are discussed.

PRISM: Fighting Against Open Access.

There is a general feeling of dissatisfaction about the way we can inform the scientific community on our discoveries and the results of our studies. The first problem is the long time required before a paper is published. After we spend a relatively short time preparing a paper, the time for acceptance or refusal is often several months, after which if accepted and duly corrected, many more months or even an entire year is needed to see the paper published. All this is certainly not in favour of a rapid dissemination of information and may slow down scientific progress. The second issue refers to the availability of scientific information to all continents and to remote corners of the world. This is the Galleon concept of Universalism of science, which is not presently fulfilled. The main obstacles are the high cost of journal subscriptions and the problems of distributing paper journals to small cities in developing countries. The third drawback of the present system lies in the fact that any comment, criticism or objection to any paper requires weeks or months to be published and the same for the author’s reply. Personally I believe that the best method, which may guarantee a systematic diffusion worldwide, is electronic distribution. The number of computers worldwide, is increasingly exponentially every year. There is a project, by Negroponte known as ‘one laptop per child’ that in the future every citizen of the world will have access to a computer. This great project is to produce an enormous number of personal computers at a very low cost ($100) for children in the developing world. In a world which is progressing electronically the distribution of scientific information via a paper journal appears old fashioned and the change to an electronic network offers great advantages. We at The European Institute of Oncology have developed a project for the online dissemination of new oncological scientific knowledge. We are launching a novel online journal ecancermedicalscience, where e stands for electronic but also for European. The journal aims to reduce the main obstacles which I mentioned at the beginning ecancermedicalscience will provide immediate workup of received papers with acceptance or refusal in one week. If the paper is accepted it will be published online within one month. Comments, criticisms and objections may go on line immediately after the appearance of the paper. This will open up a system of extensive discussion among the members of the scientific community, which at present is not always possible. Publication will be free of charge. The consultation of the papers will be free of charge. The participation to the discussion will be free of charge. In other words the journal will be free for the authors and free for the readers. I am also very excited by the prospect of ecancertv. Here you will all be able to submit, watch and discuss innovative new procedures. Presently you can view an operation on ovarian cancer performed at the European Institute of Oncology where robotic surgery techniques are displayed for all to see. Eventually I hope this feature will enable all those involved in treating cancer patients the chance to view the latest techniques and benefit from the expertise of others. Ultimately we all want to share knowledge so that patients can receive the latest, optimum treatment. I am very pleased that ecancermedicalscience is the scientific and multimedia partner of The European CanCer Organisation (ECCO). I was associated with ECCO (formally FECS) from the very beginning and their support on this project has been invaluable. Finally ecancermedicalscience is not for profit, ensuring an unbiased approach to publishing and editing, free from commercial constraints. All the charitable partners involved in the organisation benefit from the success of ecancermedicalscience.

Ten Major Issues in Providing a Repository Service in Australian Universities

By mid 2006, all Australian universities had established, or were partway to establishing, institutional repository services. The development of institutional repository services can often be related to the open access movement, which seeks to make valued research outputs openly available by encouraging academics to place their publications into repositories, enhancing their availability and bypassing the high cost of journal subscriptions. However, many universities have extended the functionality of their repository services for other purposes, such as giving scholars the opportunity to develop their own research portfolio, providing a means of improving research reporting, establishing an electronic publishing service, or giving access to collections of images or other research outputs. The potential for development seems endless.

Faut-il tenter de publier une étude qui ne conclut rien ?

When a study finds that no exposure factor or therapy is significantly related to a given effect, researchers legitimately wonder if the results should be submitted for publication and to what journal. Clinical trials that report significant associations have a higher probability of publication, a phenomenon known as selective publication. The principal reasons of this selective publication include author self-censorship, peer-reviewing, trials not intended for publication, interpretation of the p value, cost of journal subscriptions, and policies. Subsequent reviews and meta-analyses are biased by the unavailability of nonsignificant results. Suggestions for preventing this risk include university training, trial registries, an international standard randomised controlled trial number (ISRCTN), Cochrane collaboration, and the gray literature. Journals (including electronic journals) interested in studies with nonsignificant results are listed. New technologies are changing the relations between publishers, libraries, authors and readers.

Information sources used by New South Wales cancer clinicians: a qualitative study

This study identified (i) information sources used by cancer clinicians to guide pharmacological treatments, (ii) utilization of, and opinions about, online information sources and (iii) clinicians' ability to access a specific cancer treatment protocol (escalated bleomycin, etiposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone (BEACOPP) for Hodgkin's Lymphoma). The work was carried out before activation of the Cancer Institute New South Wales Standard Cancer Treatment (CI-SCaT) programme. We conducted semistructured interviews with a purposeful sample of senior and junior doctors, nurses and pharmacists treating adult cancer patients (n = 32) in eight New South Wales public hospitals. Information seeking processes are context specific and vary from clinician to clinician and ward to ward. Clinicians use human, electronic and printed information sources at, or close to, the point of patient care; however, experienced colleagues are preferred where information is needed quickly or in unfamiliar clinical situations. Barriers to using online cancer information are environmental (hardware, connection speeds, time), personal (poor computer literacy and lack of awareness of appropriate sites) and economic (costs of journal subscriptions). Just over half of participants were able to locate a specific cancer protocol and none of these protocols was fully consistent with CI-SCaT recommendations. There is no standardized approach to the pharmacological treatment of cancer patients in this sample of New South Wales clinicians. CI-SCaT will fill a gap with respect to standardizing oncology treatment. However, to ensure maximal CI-SCaT uptake, implementation plans should harness positive behavioural influences and attempt to modify the negative forces that act on hospital clinicians in their day-to-day work.

Bringing scientific literature to the developing world: The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL)

The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL) is an indexed library of key agricultural, environmental and related science periodicals created to help institutions in developing countries significantly expand their journal collections despite the prohibitive cost of journal subscriptions. TEEAL currently contains nine years of subscriptions (1993‐2001) to over 140 scientific journals with 1.7 million pages of articles on 381 CD‐ROMs. TEEAL is distributed at a low cost to 109 low and lower‐middle income countries around the world. Today, 66 institutions in 34 countries use TEEAL, and many others are negotiating its acquisition. This paper discusses the creation and development of TEEAL and its future direction in the context of working towards universal access to scientific information.

The CISTI Source/SUMO Experience at McGill University

Summary The soaring cost of journal subscriptions has caused budgetary difficulties for many libraries. This presentation details an alternative to journal subscriptions: a Subsidized Unmediated Ordering (SUMO) service. Since November 1996, McGill University libraries have utilized the CISTI Source/SUMO service from which faculty, staff, and graduate students can browse a table of contents database over the Internet, order articles, and receive them directly to their desktop, thus bypassing the library's catalog and interlibrary loan service completely. The document delivery costs of this service represent only a fraction of the subscription costs for the same journals within the same year. Using the CISTI Source/SUMO service, McGill University libraries were able to provide a wider range of journal titles in a more timely and economical fashion than traditional print subscriptions.