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K-State Today

October 27, 2016

K-State Libraries cancel Springer Publishing journal package

Submitted by Darchelle Martin

After close evaluation of cost and usage statistics, K-State Libraries will cancel one of its largest journal packages, Springer Publishing, effective at the end of this year. While this package contains approximately 1,700 journal titles, it was determined that most of the titles had only been used a handful of times in the last three years. However, select individual journal titles from the package have been identified for subscription renewal using criteria based on cost of title, usage, cost per use and costs of interlibrary loans.

A significant number of full-text articles from these journals are available with a one-year embargo through aggregators or databases to which the Libraries subscribe. We also will retain the past publications for which we have paid.

Any needed articles to which our faculty and students don't have access can be requested through interlibrary loan and are usually available within 24 hours. Our intent is to closely monitor the use of these journals in the coming year, including requests through interlibrary loan. If there is a journal with a significant number of requests, it will be considered for subscription.

In spring 2016, K-State Libraries announced cuts to databases and journal subscriptions as a result of financial callbacks and budget reductions. For more information on the circumstances leading to the cuts, please visit the Collections Budget Update page.

Since the largest economic challenge for academic libraries is the increasing cost of journal subscriptions, K-State Libraries support open access publishing, which makes research findings immediately available with no subscription cost. The Libraries provide links to the Directory of Open Access Journals and support various open access initiatives.

To learn more about actions you can take to support Open Access initiatives visit our website or contact the Center for the Advancement of Digital Scholarship for more information.