Elsevier is a horrible thing

Originally shared by John Baez


How much do universities pay for journal subscriptions?   The publisher Elsevier works hard to keep this secret... and a representative recently explained why:

"Well, indeed there are confidentiality clauses inherent in the system, in our Freedom Collections. The Freedom Collections do give a lot of choice and there is a lot of discount in there to the librarians. And the use, and the cost per use has been dropping dramatically, year on year. And so we have to ensure that, in order to have fair competition between different countries, that we have this level of confidentiality to make that work. Otherwise everybody would drive down, drive down, drive drive drive, and that would mean that … [audience laughs]."

They keep the prices secret to keep the prices high!  And the total cost of Elsevier subscriptions has been shooting up, not down.

So, it's great that Tim Gowers has used the Freedom of Information Act in Britain to find out how much universities are spending on Elsevier journals.  The main exception: it's still secret at Oxford.

We should find out how much Oxford is paying... and find this out for universities around the world!  Ted Bergstrom and others are focused on the US:

http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/Journals/BundleContracts.html

Here's what Tim Gowers has found:

University              Cost                         
Birmingham          £764,553
Bristol                     £808,840
Cambridge             £1,161,571
Cardiff                    £720,533
Durham                  £461,020
Edinburgh              £845,000
Exeter                     £234,126
Glasgow                 £686,104
Imperial                  £1,340,213
King’s College       £655,054
Leeds                      £847,429
Liverpool                £659,796
Manchester           £1,257,407
Newcastle              £974,930
Nottingham            £903,076
Queen Mary            £454,422
Queen’s U Belfast  £584,020
Sheffield                  £562,277
Southampton          £766,616
U College London   £1,381,380
Warwick                   £631,851
York                          £400,445

For more, read Gowers' blog!  And if you have information about Elsevier subscription prices, please pass it on to me.
http://gowers.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/elsevier-journals-some-facts