Models for Increasing Access Leo Walford

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Remember 1997? As a librarian, you: Bought print journals via subscription agents Were beginning to think about electronic journals Worried about pricing As a Publisher, you: Sold individual print subscriptions via agents to libraries Thought about pricing Worried about electronic journals

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Since then What have publishers been doing to improve access and availability?

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Models for Increasing Access 1.Big Deals 2.Licensing 3.Donation Schemes 4.Pay per view 5.New pricing/access models 6.Open Access

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June Big Deals Libraries want to: facilitate the widest access to the most appropriate resources for their user community Business Models for Journal Content, Rightscom for JISC, April 2005

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Big Deals Publishers want to: Build reputation and brand Build – or at least maintain - revenue Build – or at least maintain - profits

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Big Deals – what are they? A library (or group of libraries) pays a sum to gain electronic access to all (or a substantial chunk) of a publishers list of titles. Pricing usually is based on the amount that the customer is currently paying for the titles it subscribes to, plus an extra amount to cover the additional titles The package is usually fixed: titles, or the amount paid cannot be changed (ie no cancellations) Pricing is usually fixed: any changes in price for subsequent years form part of the agreement Deals often (but not always) three years Some deals are opt-in

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Big Deals: Pros and Cons for Libraries Pros Much greater access to content Predictability of costs Cons Lack of flexibility Some titles may not be used and cant be cancelled (Perceptions of) licence terms Budget tied-up VAT

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Big Deals: Pros and Cons for Publishers Pros Much greater exposure for content Much greater usage Tie-in of revenue Cons Limited growth potential Requires sales team Much greater administration Higher demand on customer service teams

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Big Deals: The Effects % change Total HE spending on journals £62.8M£96.1M53% total current subscriptions 597,0001,200,000101% Average periodical price £252£42368% Average price paid/subscription £105£80-24%

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Big Deals: The Effects

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Big Deals: The Effects

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June Licensing to Aggregators Bundles of content May be publisher-specific, discipline-specific or both Protagonists: Ebsco, ProQuest, Ovid, etc., Aggregators generally licence in content from publishers and pay them a royalty based on volume of content and/or usage

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Aggregators: Pros and Cons for Libraries Pros Big bundles of content at (relatively) low prices One negotiation Students like them Cons Content may disappear from the package Limited (if any) rights to permanent access Embargo periods mean content not the most current

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Aggregators: Pros and Cons for Publishers Pros Exposure New Markets Revenue Cons Brand dilution Subscription cancellations

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June Donation Schemes Developed by publishers often in conjunction with other bodies, to improve access in (largely) the developing world Benefit users who would otherwise not be able to access the journals Provide good publicity for publishers, at marginal (direct) cost or loss of revenue

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Donation Schemes HINARI, AGORA, OARE – in conjunction with WHO INASP : International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications Journal Donation Project (Soros Foundation)

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Donation Schemes Example: HINARI Offers over 3,800 journals 2,500 institutions in 117 countries Institutions in countries with <$1,000 gdp pay nothing Institutions in countries with $1-$3,000 gdp pay $1,000 for access to everything

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Donation Schemes Romania: "If you think you are excited about this, I can tell you that everyone here, academics, students and staff are absolutely thrilled. Gambia : It has been a very popular initiative here. Intellectual isolation is considered one of the factors (that mean that) African Research centres cannot develop world class researchers. This can go some way to changing that.

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June Pay per view User only pays for what they use Publishers charge a fee per article Fee may be different for different publishers, different content, different markets or different conditions Some variants on this, e.g. pay for fixed time period

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Pay per view Appears to provide an additional revenue stream for publishers Libraries generally unhappy about blanket use of PPV because it is unpredictable Libraries concerned that PPV isnt used for material that is already owned by the library

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June New Pricing/Access Models Libraries, funders and (maybe) publishers are on the look-out for new models which will: Bridge real or imagined information gaps Provide greater value for money Provide flexibility Provide more accountability Be simpler In short, cheaper and better

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 New Pricing/Access Models National licence PPV converting to subscription Core + peripheral PPV Value-based pricing Open Access

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 New Pricing/Access Models National licence A single national payment to publishers for limited access to all their content Has worked in certain clearly-defined circumstances, e.g. JISC purchase of OUP backfiles Works as a mechanism for standardising opt- in consortial deals Hard to see it working on a larger scale

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 New Pricing/Access Models PPV converting to subscription Once a certain level of PPV expenditure on a title is reached, it automatically becomes a subscription title Although simple in principle, this is difficult to model, and is unattractive to publishers and librarians Not currently used?

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 New Pricing/Access Models Core + peripheral Discipline-specific package of journals, with an add- on chunk of free PPV from non-subscribed titles Pricing can be varied according to how much access is allowed (ie PPV can kick in early if the library pays a smaller up-front subscription payment) Vulnerable to disagreement on selection of core titles, movements of titles between publishers Administratively difficult Not used?

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 New Pricing/Access Models Value-based pricing Being launched in 2008 by American Chemical Society Appears not to apply to consortial customers These new subscription models de-couple the prices of the print and electronic versions of each journal and utilize value-based metrics such as number of articles published, ISI® impact factor, and total downloads to establish prices for each ACS Journal.

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June Open Access Publishers already offer a lot of open access material: Free Access periods Hybrid Journals offering Open Choice options (several thousand titles) Full Author-Pays OA journals (a few) Freely available content on publishers platforms –e.g. HighWire has 1.7M open access articles

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Conclusions The big deal is here to stay (at least for a while): it offers too many benefits for libraries and publishers to be discarded lightly Aggregated databases have an important role to play Donation schemes have made great strides, but there is more to be done PPV is a useful adjunct, but is unlikely to displace anything While new pricing models will emerge, it is unlikely there will be any major shift in the ways libraries pay for journal content Theres lots of OA content out there –much of it compatible with publisher existing business models

Bloomsbury Conference, 29 June 2007 Back to 2007 Compared with ten years ago, this is a golden age for content availability What more can be done?

Thank you