Perspectives on academic publishing

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the cost of electronic journals has continually grown to the point that many academic libraries today find it financially unsustainable. This has made it necessary for librarians to begin cancelling major journal subscription packages, known colloquially as big deal packages. The cancellation of big deal packages is complex, and at present, poorly understood practice revolving around the analysis of a range of quantitative and qualitative data. Moreover, it also has a distinct micro-political dimension as it involves reconciling the, at times, conflicting interests of faculty, students, librarians, and publishers. This panel seeks to initiate a dialogue between a diverse group of stakeholders with interests in this issue. It is expected that this dialogue will increase awareness of the complexity involved in managing the size, scope, and cost of big deal subscription packages and will give voice to multiple perspectives on the issue. As such, it is hoped that the panel will contribute to finding common ground from which we can collectively begin thinking about how the symbiotic relationship between academic libraries and publishers can be reinvented.

Philippe Mongeon

Assistant Professor, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University

I am an assistant professor at the School of Information Management at Dalhousie University, director of the Quantitative Science Studies Lab, and associate member of the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (CIRST).