University of Massachusetts Amherst
From the SelectedWorks of Paulina Borrego
Spring May 31, 2018
Drawing the line: How we walked away from RSC Paulina Borrego Kate Zdepski, University of Massachusetts Amherst
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC International License.
Available at: https://works.bepress.com/paulina_borrego/22/ Drawing the line: How we walked away from RSC
Paulina Borrego, Science & Engineering Librarian Kate Zdepski, Resource Sharing Librarian 2 RSC Gold journal bundle of 38 titles Gold package includes current journals plus back file Background No additional content added
$73,821.96 FY-16 - 7.8% $68,427.61 FY-15 - 8.8% $62,860.05 FY-14 - 9.8% $57,236.25 FY-13 - 3.1% $55,507.50 FY-12
The renewal license included an 8% increase for three consecutive years making the price be over $93,000 in 2019
Unsustainable 24% price increase over three years
3 Usage Faculty Data Ranking
Ranked Title Use 2015 Ranked Title Use 2016 Ranked Faculty Subscription Requests
Chemical Communications Chemical Communications Chemical Communications
Soft Matter RSC Advances Chemical Society Reviews
Chemical Society Reviews RSC Journals Archive 1841-1996 Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
RSC Advances Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics Soft Matter
Polymer Chemistry Soft Matter RSC Advances
Nanoscale Chemical Society Reviews Nanoscale
Journal of Materials Chemistry [A,B,or C?] Nanoscale Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics Journal of Materials Chemistry A Faraday Discussions
The Analyst Polymer Chemistry Chemical Science*
RSC Journals Archive 1841-1996 The Analyst Analyst
Polymer Chemistry 4 One year later:
5 Upshot Theoretical 2017 RSC Gold Package: $79,727.72
2017 individual subscriptions: $33,996.00 +$55,000 for a static back file!
ILL and copyright fees: $5,128.50
See more at: https://sparcopen.org/our-work/big-deal-cancellation-tracking
6 Journal Title 2017 Total Use Past 5 years
One Year Soft Matter 4,268 2,881
Later Chemical Communications 4,044 2,491
Chemical Society Reviews 3,191 2,101
RSC Advances 2,735 2,613
Polymer Chemistry 2,345 1,934
Nanoscale 2,139 1,894
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 1,821 1,180
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 1,619 1,618
Chemical Science* 1,414 1,280
Energy & Environmental Science** 1,094 858
RSC Journals Archive 1841-1996 957 -
The Analyst 943 651
Faraday Discussions 209 138 * Open Access 7 ** Desiderata list title purchase 2017
Interlibrary Borrowed articles Copyright 2017 RSC Loan Journal Title published past 5 years & other fees Subscription Cost Green Chemistry 24 $1,296.90 $3,032.00 Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry 23 $1,240.80 $8,752.00 Food & Function 20 $1,024.50 $3,015.00 Journal of Materials Chemistry B 16 $749.10 $3,134.00 Journal of Materials Chemistry C 12 $476.70 $3,134.00 Environmental Science: Nano 9 $272.40 $2,344.00 Chemical Science 6 $68.10 OA as of 2017 TOTALS 110 $5,128.50 $23,411.00 $18,282.5 difference! Notes: ➢ Typical per article copyright fee from an RSC journal: $68.10 ➢ Highest cost for a single article: $71.10 ➢ Chemical Science cost is for articles before changing to Open Access ( pre-2017 articles were still behind a paywall) 8 “I took a poll of my group today (12 researchers). We estimate as a Some group that we filed ~ 10 ILL requests last year for papers in RSC journals no longer subscribed to. Faculty Comments A slightly larger number of articles (~ 30 ) were obtained by requesting copies from friends at other institutions or downloading copies from PI’s websites (probably violating copyright laws).
We estimate as ~ 300 the number of articles where the researcher would have liked to see the paper, but didn’t feel that it was critical and simply ‘gave up’ rather than filing an ILL request or hunting for another copy.
In short, the loss of access to these journals has had a quite substantial impact on how we conduct research, mostly by causing us to neglect an important set of resources.”
9 Next Steps
➢ Meet with new Assessment Librarian ➢ Monitor COUNTER usage statistics for subscriptions ➢ Monitor Interlibrary Loan for other RSC titles ➢ Survey faculty ○ How do faculty access? Friends/family/colleagues? Other library subscriptions?
10 Next Steps
11 Thanks
Scott Stangroom
Christine Turner
Sally Krash
12