Is It Such a Big Deal? On the Cost of Journal Use in the Digital Era

Fuente: ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Shu, Fei, Mongeon, Philippe, Haustein, Stefanie, Siler, Kyle, Alperin, Juan Pablo, Larivière, Vincent
Format: Recurso educativo Open Access
Language:en
Published: 2018
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author Shu, Fei
Mongeon, Philippe
Haustein, Stefanie
Siler, Kyle
Alperin, Juan Pablo
Larivière, Vincent
author_facet Shu, Fei
Mongeon, Philippe
Haustein, Stefanie
Siler, Kyle
Alperin, Juan Pablo
Larivière, Vincent
Shu, Fei
Mongeon, Philippe
Haustein, Stefanie
Siler, Kyle
Alperin, Juan Pablo
Larivière, Vincent
collection Education Resources Information Center
contents Is It Such a Big Deal? On the Cost of Journal Use in the Digital Era Shu, Fei Mongeon, Philippe Haustein, Stefanie Siler, Kyle Alperin, Juan Pablo Larivière, Vincent Academic Libraries Librarians Periodicals Research Libraries Expenditures 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. (A list of notes is included.)
format Recurso educativo Open Access
id eric_EJ1190667
institution ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language en
publishDate 2018
record_format eric
spellingShingle Is It Such a Big Deal? On the Cost of Journal Use in the Digital Era
Shu, Fei
Mongeon, Philippe
Haustein, Stefanie
Siler, Kyle
Alperin, Juan Pablo
Larivière, Vincent
Academic Libraries
Librarians
Periodicals
Research Libraries
Expenditures
Is It Such a Big Deal? On the Cost of Journal Use in the Digital Era Shu, Fei Mongeon, Philippe Haustein, Stefanie Siler, Kyle Alperin, Juan Pablo Larivière, Vincent Academic Libraries Librarians Periodicals Research Libraries Expenditures 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. (A list of notes is included.)
title Is It Such a Big Deal? On the Cost of Journal Use in the Digital Era
topic Academic Libraries
Librarians
Periodicals
Research Libraries
Expenditures
url https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1190667