MU MU Libraries
home Budget, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Seeking input on journal subscription renewals

Seeking input on journal subscription renewals

With the prospect of a possible shortfall of $1 million to the MU Libraries collection budget in FY2017, we are seeking input on some lower-use journals, particularly the titles in the bundles purchased through publishers Elsevier and Wiley.

Follow this link to provide your input on specific journal titles between now and April 4. 

We are beginning with these bundles because:

  •  they consume a large portion of the library collections budget, amounting to about $2,000,000 annually
  •  similar to a “cable tv model”, these bundles contain many titles which were never selected for our library, (e.g. dentistry)

Also included are some high cost/low use journals from other publishers in a variety of disciplines.

Learn more about the campuswide collections review process and the reasons for it.

With subscription prices escalating annually at a rate that far exceeds inflation, MU is not the only university facing this dilemma.  Read more:

Larivière, V., Haustein, S., and Mongeon, P. (2015) The Oligopoly of Academic Publishers in the Digital Era. PLoS One.  10(6): e0127502.

Bergstrom, T. C, Courant, P. N, McAfee, R. P., Williams, M. A. (2014) Evaluating Big Deal Journal Bundles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 111(26): 9425–9430

View Health Sciences Library Director Deb Ward’s message to department chairs and health sciences leaders.

Contact us if you have any additional questions.