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What’s to Become of Academic Journals?

Journals and their future have become a hot topic in the academic world. Frequently read higher education publications like Higher Ed[1] and The Chronicle[2] regularly feature conversations about such topics as rising subscription costs, the Big Deals, and/or open access[3].

As a result, most people in academia are at least moderately aware that the future of journal publishing is up for discussion. Of course much of this situation has to do with the Internet and the greater accessibility it provides, but the other component of this shift is the rising cost of subscriptions.  In most cases, universities and colleges ranging from the Ivy Leagues to rural community colleges have found their endowments, operating budgets, and collection development budgets reduced since the last economic crisis; subtract for inflation and add the rising cost of journals and you will most likely end up with a negative number.

To date, we are pretty lucky here at Falvey Memorial Library; we have only had to make very modest collection development reductions. But if journal costs continue to increase at 4% or more, we will have to make some of the same tough choices about our collections that other institutions have made about theirs. Unfortunately, we cannot avoid these problems, and Falvey needs your assistance with making smart decisions about how our collection grows in the future.  Please take a moment to complete this brief survey (click here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/vujournals) about your journal preferences and attend one of the journal forums scheduled for this semester (October 15th & November 26th at 9:30 AM in Falvey Library, Holy Grounds Café).

Feel free to contact me, Kimberley Bugg, by phone (93073) or email (kimberley.bugg@villanova.edu) for questions and/or additional information.


[2] Selected Chronicle Articles:

Saying Costly Subscriptions ‘Cannot Be Sustained,’ Harvard Library Committee Urges Open Access

http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/saying-costly-subscriptions-cannot-be-sustained-harvard-library-committee-urges-open-access/42589

Libraries Abandon Expensive ‘Big Deal’ Subscription Packages to Multiple Journals

http://chronicle.com/article/Libraries-Abandon-Expensive/128220/

Cornell U. Library Takes a Stand With Journal Vendors: Prices Will Be Made Public

http://chronicle.com/article/Cornell-U-Library-Takes-a/126852/

 

[3] Selected library journal articles:

The Business of Academic Publishing: A Strategic Analysis of the Academic Journal Publishing Industry and its Impact on the Future of Scholarly Publishing (http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v09n03/mcguigan_g01.html)

Why the Big Deal Continues to Persist (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03615260903206853)

 


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Last Modified: August 23, 2013

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