Journal Subscription Cancellations for January 2021

• Introduction
• FAQ
• List of Proposed Cancellations

Introduction

The library is implementing journal subscription cancellations to control costs. This web page is available to library users in order to share information about the cancellations and to call for your feedback on the proposed cancellations.

Process and Timeline

Library users provided comments between January 13 and Friday, May 22, 2020. Library leadership reviewed comments as they were submitted and made final decisions on Friday, June 12, 2020. Journal renewals and cancellations take effect January 2021.

Please note that because journals change ownership or discontinue at any time, final results may vary.

Reason for journal cancellations

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, the library spent $2,580,345 on journals, books, and other materials to support student, faculty, and staff research. About 40% of this was spent on journal subscriptions. Publishers increase subscription costs annually by 5 to 6%. Increases to the library’s budget have not kept pace with the increases in journal prices, so we must reduce expenditures in order to make up the shortfall.

Goal for Cancellation Project

The library must reduce journal subscription costs by approximately $150,000 to balance our budget. The library will attempt to minimize the impact of these cancellations. In many instances, some access will still be provided through currently subscribed aggregator databases (in which publishers agree to allow access to journal content but may also remove that content at any time), JSTOR (an academic community collaborative meant to preserve and share access to scholarship), and library support for Interlibrary Loan.

Criteria

In order to reach the needed reduction of $150,000, we are considering titles that fall into one or more of the following categories for cancellation:  

• All titles with an average CPU (cost per use) for FY17-19 of more than $25.
• All titles available in aggregator databases outside of our journal subscription with no embargo (current issue access).
• All titles with an average full text use for FY17-19 of fewer than 13 uses per year.
• All titles subscribed in print, excepting newspapers and the BHI Meyerhoff Collection titles.  

We have not considered titles that are part of journal packages (packages offer a single price to purchase a bundle of multiple journal titles), in which it would be more costly to cancel the package and subscribe to fewer individual titles than to subscribe to the whole package.  

FAQ