We also have lots of problems with having to buy bundled packages of journals. So if you want one journal you have to buy 5 others you don't want (including journals in fields we don't offer at our college like dentistry or engineering). It is kind of like cable TV - you have to buy 100s of irrelevant channels to get the one you want. Marie
Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Professor l Department of Psychology Kaufman 168 l Dickinson College Phone 717.245.1562 l Fax 717.245.1971 http://users.dickinson.edu/~helwegm/index.html -----Original Message----- From: Ken Steele [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2014 2:49 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] How Much Is Your School Paying For Its Journals? We have had several presentations from our library on issues related to journal costs. One problem has been that several big publishers have been buying up smaller journals and then selling "packages" to institutions. You can imagine how much more income a publisher can produce by packaging some desired journals with less-desired journals. Ken ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kenneth M. Steele, Ph. D. [email protected] Professor Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu Appalachian State University Boone, NC 28608 USA ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On 6/19/2014 1:59 PM, Mike Palij wrote: > An economic research study that has been published first online by the > journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" > {PNAS} reveals that the secret deals that universities have with > journal publishers appears to cause significant differences in the > prices paid for the same journals (Note: by significant I don't > statistically, rather, I means bucks, such as paying almost twice as > much for the same material). A number of mass media outlets have > picked up on this research and one reasonable account is given by > "ScienceInsider"; see: > http://news.sciencemag.org/economics/2014/06/how-much-did-your-univers > ity-pay-your-journals > > The original journal article can be access here if your institution > has a subscription to PNAS: > http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/06/11/1403006111 > The data that they used has also been made available in an Excel > spreadsheet: > news.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Bergstrom.xlsx > > I've browsed through the article but it is going to require a closer > reading to really understand what is going on. But there are a few > comments I'd like to make now: > > (1) The agreements for journal bundles are supposed to be secret and > some universities would not provide the relevant information. > For public institutions, the authors filed Freedom of Information Act > (FOIA) claims to access this information. One publisher brought suit > against the request made to the Washington State University and two > publishers (the prior one and another) brought suit against the > request made to the University of Texas System. In both cases it was > ruled that copies of the contracts had to be released. I'm not sure > what was done for private institutions that refused to provide their > contracts. > > (2) The analyses focus on universities that grant the Ph.D. or the > Master's degree (i.e., no undergraduate only institutions). > They used the old Carnegie Foundation ranking of institutions: > (a) Research I: traditionally, these are Ph.D. granting institutions > that have the highest level of grant funded research (above a certain > threshold dollar amount) > (b) Research II: comparable to Research I but with grant funding below > the threshold > (c) Maser's: institutions that grant the Master's degree as it highest > degree. > The authors do point out that the Carnegie foundation does not > presently use these distinctions (they changed it in 2000 and again in > 2005) but most researchers are familiar with the older classification. > > (3) One way to evaluate whether subscribing to a journal is cost > effective is to calculate the "cost per citation", that is, the > subscription cost of the journal divided by the number of citations it > receives -- citations appear to be based on the "Web of > Science"/Journal Citation Reports database. The authors acknowledge > that for journals not appearing in this database, they used the > Scimago database which is based on Elsevier's Scopus database. > Presumably an institution would prefer to subscribe to journals that > have (a) high citation rates and (b) low subscription costs. However, > this might cause low citation journals to cease publication which is > why a publisher would want to bundle the journals together (high and > low citation journals) in order to keep certain journals alive. > However, it may be to an institution's advantage to "pick and choose" > which journals it really wants, given its budget. > > As I've mentioned above, a close reading of the article is warranted. > One conclusion that might be reached is that there should be more > transparency about the deals publishers make with university > libraries. > > -Mike Palij > New York University > [email protected] > > > --- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. 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