Scholarly journal subscription costs are on the rise, according to a report by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL).
CARL “provides leadership on behalf of Canada’s research libraries and enhances capacity to advance research and higher education,” according to its website.
Globally, from 2011-15, the prices of academic journals rose by five to seven per cent annually, with similar increases happening over the past two years.
Lise Brin, a program officer at the association, said the rise in subscription costs is not something new as it has been happening over the past two decades.
According to the report, in Canada, the 29 academic research libraries that are members of the CARL paid about $167 million CAD collectively in 2011 for subscriptions to electronic content; $215 million in 2014; and approximately $260 million in 2016.
While not being a major contributor to the problem, the weakening of the Canadian dollar has played a role, according to the report.
“Almost all of these packages that we buy, that we subscribe to for journals are paid in U.S. dollars, so I think in Canada, we tend to be adversely affected because of that,” Brin said.
She said the cost increase is also because vendors who sell journal databases continually add content, “which is part of how they justify raising the costs every year.”
However, she added that despite having more access to journals, not all of them are being used.
“There [are] certain journals that are used much, much more than others. So, that’s part of the argument that research libraries are making is that even though we’re getting more content in these packages, we’re accessing more journals, that’s not necessarily helpful to us,” Brin said.
She said having more content can also make it more difficult for CARL and university libraries to create search tools for students as they tend to search multiple academic journals at once rather than individually.
The report presents possible solutions such as redistributing the library budget, re-negotiating better deals and trying to subscribe to the journals that are most used by students and researchers, rather than all the journals the publisher offers, known as the “big deal.”
“This is something the more we talk about it and the more that researchers, institutions, and students know about the situation, the more chance there is that we can work together to bring about some solutions,” Brin said.
Photo by Aaron Hemens
