From: "Hinchliffe, Lisa W" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2019 02:43:34 +0000
I would be very hesitant to infer the number of titles of journals in the
world from the holdings of ARL libraries. This could just mean that
finally, over those 20ish year, ARL libraries managed to provide access to
a far greater percentage of the literature than they could previously?
--
Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe
Professor/ Coordinator for Information Literacy Services and Instruction
University Library, University of Illinois, 1408 West Gregory Drive,
Urbana, Illinois 61801
[log in to unmask], 217-333-1323 (v), 217-244-4358 (f)
------------------------------
From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2019 20:34:36 -0700
Steve, this is smart and fascinating. If the comparison is valid (and that
depends on the consistency and accuracy of the data collection and
reporting from ARL), it suggests that the age of e-journals has seen a
quadrupling of journals subscribed. Brian Simboli suggests a reduction in
overall quantity of journals could be helpful, but he and I offline have
chatted and don't see a realistic way to make that come about. The idea
that we could encourage promotion and compensation review systems in
research institutions to value quality over quantity, e.g., by allowing
submission for review of only top 5 or 10 or 25 articles from a given
author, has been around for a long time and gotten essentially no
traction.
I'll still worry, though, about the validity of those ARL data and welcome
any other good measures for what has happened to the journal universe in
those 24 years since the first meaningful e-journal deals from big
publishers.
Jim O'Donnell
ASU
On Tue, Nov 26, 2019 at 7:50 PM LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: "Bosch, Stephen J - (boschs)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2019 23:35:37 +0000
One source of data for question 1 could be ARL. In 1995 the median number
of current serials provided by ARL libraries was a bit over 21,000 while in
2011, the last year ARL gathered the number of serials, the median had
increased to slightly more than 90,000.
Stephen Bosch
Materials Budget, Procurement, and Licensing Librarian
University of Arizona Library
1510 East University PO Box 210055
Tucson, AZ 85721-0055
520-621-6452
520-621-8276 fax
[log in to unmask]
From: Brian Simboli <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2019 19:15:51 -0500
A few points.
1. Jim O'Donnell asks: "How large was the universe of academic journals
held in American universities in 1995? How many titles? Now, how many do
we have now? I pick 1995 as the year in which big deal pricing began more
or less and the big publishers started offering e-access."
*That is a great question. Is there any reliable source for this data,
broken out by subject area? I can think of one or two possible sources for
this data but it is presented annually.*
2. Danny Kingsley mentions that "..we often frame these discussions [about
download use, citations and so on] around the academic use of research
papers, and it is true they are the ones creating citations. But in a
university there is a huge cohort of use by students which is important to
consider. In terms of cancellations, particularly on a large scale, it is
likely in the first year the student use won’t be greatly affected - the
percentage of papers that were published within the last 12 months put on
reading lists for students would be small. But as years progress and access
remains cut off this might start to impact on the student experience."
*This is a nice point about the need to take student use into
consideration. This does drop out of view in many conversations.*
I'd take it however in a perhaps different (?) direction and suggest that a
contracted journal space is consistent with this point, from the standpoint
that journals should assume much more of an integrative and review role
than they do now. That can be accomplished with significantly fewer of
them. In instruction sessions for undergraduates, I routinely talk about
the great value of review articles in the context of their value
for developing background knowledge. They play a key educational role. But
the same point extends to graduate students and researchers new to a field.
--
Brian Simboli
Science, Mathematics, and Psychology Librarian
Library and Technology Services
E.W. Fairchild Martindale
Lehigh University
8A East Packer Avenue
Bethlehem, PA 18015-3170
(610) 758-5003; [log in to unmask]
Profile & Research guides
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