Timeline for University library dropping independent journal subscriptions. What to do?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 26, 2023 at 21:33 | comment | added | Dr. Evil | @Thomas Kojar....The library email specified that these journals have a 5% price increase this year. This is the reason given for letting go of the subscription. We have asked for further clarification, including how much the price of bundles has increased over the past few years. | |
| Oct 26, 2023 at 15:09 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | @AlecRhea Something like scihub can address the immediate need of a scholar seeking a particular paper, but it doesn't address the loss of income of the journals that are dropped, and it also risks enabling this kind of undesirable behavior on the part of university administrations. | |
| Oct 26, 2023 at 12:32 | comment | added | Mikhail Katz | @MichaelHardy, some universities at the time actually did resist the trend. As far as I recall, Cornell did not fall for the "big deal", and retained its independence. | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 22:50 | comment | added | Thomas Kojar | @Dr. Evil, Do you also know the figure of how much those listed independent journals actually cost in total? I think that will drive the point even more if you do some protest. Or is that inaccessible information? | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 21:26 | comment | added | Michael Hardy | @MikhailKatz : Greedy publishers will be greedy publishers for as long as academia is organized and run in a way that doesn't make sense. The blame for that does not belong first to the publishers. | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 13:48 | comment | added | Mikhail Katz | @Andy , the point is that libraries lost control over their inventories. They committed themselves to (or more precisely were lured into) the "great deal" with greedy publishers. The latter have been steadily increasing prices, making it impossible for the libraries to maintain other subscriptions. Furthermore, the math libraries are typically tied into the university library system, and have no option of breaking away from what once thought of as a "great deal". | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 13:42 | comment | added | Andy Putman | @MikhailKatz: That answer is totally irrelevant. The list above includes some journals that are so important that I cannot imagine a research-oriented math department functioning without access to then (eg, JEMS, G&T, Commentariii). | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 13:30 | comment | added | Mikhail Katz | This was answered here: mathoverflow.net/a/240177/28128 | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 13:28 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | My instinct is that the most effective approach in the short term is to organize a faculty protest. If the university is not desperately short of money, and is not hopelessly dysfunctional, a vigorous faculty protest stands a reasonable chance of getting such a decision reversed. | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 13:23 | history | edited | Timothy Chow | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 25, 2023 at 8:09 | comment | added | Brendan McKay | Do they have a document procurement service that is free to you? If not, you should make a fuss. Even though there are many journals my library doesn't have subscriptions for, they will get me a copy of practically anything, usually within 24 hours. | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 7:28 | comment | added | Vladimir Dotsenko | I am really wondering how exactly these kind of decisions are made. | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 6:00 | comment | added | Alec Rhea | I don’t know if I can get banned/sued/whatever for saying this outright, nor do I really care; just use scihub. | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 5:49 | comment | added | bof | How many administrators would they have fire to pay for the canceled subscriptions? | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 4:32 | history | asked | Dr. Evil | CC BY-SA 4.0 |