University researchers use only a very small percentage of journals subscribed through big deals, says a report in *The Scientist*. Please see < https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/54793/title/North-Ame...
"In 2015, the University of Montreal decided to take an empirical approach to its subscription negotiations. To do so, the university closely examined the university’s collection of approximately 50,000 journals to see which titles were essential for their faculty and students. The analysis <https://papyrus.bib.umontreal.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1866/18507/Gagnon_Stephanie_2017_article.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y>, which combined usage and citation statistics with faculty surveys, revealed that only around *11.6 percent* to *36.9 percent* of the titles in their big-deal bundles were indispensable." "The University of Calgary, for example, cut more than 1,000 titles between 2015 and 2016, primarily through unbundling two packages with Oxford University Press and Taylor & Francis, according to Thomas Hickerson <http://contacts.ucalgary.ca/info/libr/profiles/306-128431>, the university’s vice-provost of libraries." "Last month, the Bibsam consortium, which represents 85 of Sweden’s universities and research institutes, announced <https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/54593/title/Sweden-Cancels-Agreement-With-Elsevier-Over-Open-Access/> that it would not renew its subscription agreement with the publishing giant Elsevier at the end of June. This mirrored a move made in Germany, where a hard stance on open access and pricing has led more than 200 institutions to end their contracts with the publisher since 2016." ----- Arun http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4398-4658 http://www.researcherid.com/rid/B-9925-2009