2007 Collection Review
Elsevier's Science Direct Journals
Cancellation Review
The UH Manoa Library has a materials budget of $6 million annually. This budget has been flat for a number of years. Of the $6 million, the portion for serials (journals and monographic standing orders) was $5 million in 2007. There is an annual inflation rate for the cost of journals of five to ten percent, which translates into a needed increase in the serials budget of between $250,000 and $500,000 for 2008. The UH Manoa Library budget had a projected $1 million shortfall for 2007. This shortfall was covered by cutting book purchases and other operational costs. To ensure that we stay within our materials budget of $6 million for 2008, the library needs to cut $1 million from the materials budget.
In 2007 the UH Manoa Library committed $1,077,765 for subscriptions to 450 Elsevier journals. For an additional $35,500 we were granted access to another 1400 Elsevier Science Direct journals to which we retain no archival rights.
Our continued commitment to Elsevier journals is not sustainable. Journals that UH Manoa Library subscribed to in 2007 from Elsevier ranged in price from $16,145 for Tetrahedron and $15,060 for Surface Science to $182 for Nursing Outlook. Instead, we propose the following:
Core Elsevier Science Direct Subscriptions: Librarian subject specialists have developed a new list of Science Direct journals that UH Manoa will subscribe to based principally on the following criteria:
- Cost and usage data for 2005 and 2006 gathered by Elsevier of total downloads for each journal within disciplines;
- External measures such as inclusion of journals in lists of core titles, impact factors, and subscription cost per article;
- Inclusion in journals of articles published and cited by UH Manoa researchers;
- Feedback from UH Manoa faculty and students
We understand the importance of journal access for scholarly research and publication. The Library has cancelled journals in seven of the last fifteen years. There are no duplicate or non-vital journals left to cut. We know that many Elsevier journals are important within your disciplines but at our current funding level we can no longer continue to commit 22% of our serial dollars to one publisher. The library will continue to provide access to journal content through Interlibrary Loan and is actively exploring other methods of document delivery.
Pay Per View: We are exploring the possibility for document delivery of Science Direct articles through a pay-per-view voucher system that Elsevier has licensed to other university libraries, which will enable UH Manoa faculty, students, and staff to download articles from the entire Science Direct collection of journal articles. This service will provide access to articles as they are needed. The library will purchase a limited number of tokens at an approximate cost of $35 per token, which will be spent on Elsevier journals to which the library does not subscribe. Because the UH Manoa Library will be committing no more than $150,000-$200,000 for tokens, access to the full Science Direct collection will be limited to UH Manoa faculty, students, and staff. Visitors who do not have a UH Manoa affiliation will not be able to use the tokens. When the tokens are depleted, UH Manoa researchers will be able to request and receive articles through our Interlibrary Services (ILL) Office.
We have given a great deal of thought to this action and ask that you participate in this decision by submitting your comments and ideas.
Contact Kristen Anderson, UH Manoa Library Collection Development Manager, krisa@hawaii.edu or 956-2474 or your Subject Librarian
Health Sciences Library: Because we engage in cooperative purchasing agreements with the Health Sciences Library at the School of Medicine we have been communicating with the JABSOM librarians in our review of basic science and medical titles. The JABSOM librarians are currently reviewing the Elsevier basic science and medical journals that are essential to medical education and research. You may contact Virginia "Ginny" Tanji, director, at 692-0823 or tanji@hawaii.edu to express your specific concerns regarding those journals.
Open meetings were held for faculty, students, and staff on May 2, 4, and 8, by the Collection Development Manager, Kris Anderson, to gather feedback and explain the reasoning behind this cancellation decision.
Lists of Proposed Subscriptions and Cancellations
- Proposed Subscriptions
- A list of 140 journals ($294,384) published or distributed by Elsevier to which UHM Library will purchase subscriptions in 2008.
- Proposed Cancellations
- A list of 362 journals ($621,417) to which UHM Library subscribed and which will not be continued as subscriptions in 2008.
- Other Elsevier Journals
- A list of journals to which UHM Library has never subscribed but because of our license with Elsevier for the Freedom Collection, online access to articles back to 1995 has been readily available.
Further Reading: A recent article in Library Journal described the 25% profits of commercial journal publishers in 2007 and an overall journal price increase of just under eight percent; prices are expected to rise between seven and nine percent in the next year. See Serial Wars for the full article.