According to a January 19 article in the Wall Street Journal the largest academic journal provider, Reed-Elsevier is encountering growing resistance from some subscribers. In effect, some big universities are deciding the cost of savings are worth unbundling their Reed subscriptions and taking far fewer of the Journals. For example, Harvard University expects to save several hundred thousand dollars a year by cutting 100 journal titles. “Unbundling gives us more control over how we allocate our funds,” reported Sidney Verba, director of the Harvard University Libraries.

Part of the momentum behind this trend is driven by new information revealing very few of these journals are being accessed or even read; this is causing many subscribers to rethink their spending practices.

For those institutions wishing to retain journals some categories of scientific endeavor are offering new peer-reviewed journals available online free of charge. The Public Library of Science, a San Francisco nonprofit co-founder by Nobel Prize winner Harold E. Varmus and backed by a $9 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundtion, has won acclaim for its journal PLOS Biology. These free online journals have the potential to change journal subscription practices. However the potential for full replacement of licensed academic journal is not completely realized at this point.

Whether these open access journals can function without substantial, ongoing grants remains a critical question. Some of these articles require a $1,500 fee paid for by the researcher authors or their institutions to gain access to the PLOS journal. On the other hand, a bill now pending in Congress would remove copyright protection for publicly funded research. If this passes the Internet’s open access model could gain even more momentum. The debate continues over whether these open access journals will dramatically impact academic journal subscriptions, but at the time being this new open access method seems to have caused an uproar.

Impact for your Library? Are your bundled subscriptions being fully utilized? Could you save money by unbundling? Let us know your thoughts at info@socialmarketing.org

Source: Charles Goldsmith, Reed Elsvier Feels Resistance to Web Pricing. The Wall Street Journal. January 19, 2004.