Is it such a big deal? On the cost of journal use in the digital era
Article [Version of Record]
Is part of
College and research libraries ; vol. 79, no. 6, pp. 785-798.Publisher(s)
Association of College and Research LibrariesAuthor(s)
Abstract(s)
Commercial scholarly publishers promote and sell bundles of journals—
known as big deals—that provide access to entire collections rather than
individual journals. Following this new model, size of serial collections in
academic libraries increased almost fivefold from 1986 to 2011. Using
data on library subscriptions and references made for a sample of North
American universities, this study provides evidence that, while big deal
bundles do decrease the mean price per subscribed journal, academic
libraries receive less value for their investment. We find that university
researchers cite only a fraction of journals purchased by their libraries,
that this fraction is decreasing, and that the cost per cited journal has
increased. These findings reveal how academic publishers use product
differentiation and price strategies to increase sales and profits in the
digital era, often at the expense of university and scientific stakeholders.