SPEC Kit 332: Organization of Scholarly Communication Services · 153
University of Connecticut
Minutes of a Meeting of the University Senate: Attachment 23
http://www.senate.uconn.edu/SenMin/senmin.20040209.pdf
03/04 -A -60
Much of the blame for this crisis lies at the feet of a few publishers who both charge very high
prices for journal subscriptions and have increased the subscription price rapidly. For example,
the University paid $12,980 for a subscription to Biochimica et Biophysica Acta in 2002, a 13%
increase from 2000 $10,315 for a subscription to Chemical Physics Letters (13% increase)
$13,382 for the Journal of Applied Polymer Science (17%) Materials Science &Engineering
$12,073 (13%) Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research $16,790 (13%) Nuclear
Physics (13%) $22,157 Physics Review $14,965 (31%) Surface Science $16,244 (13%)
Tetrahedron $13,278 (13%).3 During the same period the University Libraries acquisition budget
increased less than 2%. Comprehensive studies of journal prices at Cornell4 and Wisconsin5
conclude that the high prices of many journals cannot be justified by the quality, timeliness, or
usefulness of the papers appearing in them.
To ensure that the scholarly literature remains broadly accessible requires a coordinated effort by
faculty, staff, students, librarians, and University administrators from every field of study at
institutions around the world. Fortunately, many such efforts are afoot (see, for example, the list
of ideas for what faculty can do at the University Libraries’ Scholarly Communications website6
and the resources available at the Create Change site of ARL7). The University Budget
Committee recommends that the Senate adopt the accompanying resolution as a first step in the
University of Connecticut’s response to the crisis.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas Anderson Dale Dreyfuss John Jevitts
Ed Benson Neil Facchinetti Patsy Johnson
Tracie Borden Larry Gramling Philip Mannheim
Nancy Bull Kathleen Holgerson Suzanne Roosen
Craig Calvert Nancy Humphreys Winthrop Smith
Bruce DeTora Deborah Huntsman David Woods
Kent Holsinger (chair)
3 http://www.lib.uconn.edu/about/publications/scijrnlsalpha.htm last viewed 28 January 2004
4 Journal Price Study, Core Agricultural and Biological Journals, 1998. Available at
http://jps.mannlib.cornell.edu/jps/jps.htm.
5 Measuring the Cost-Effectiveness of Journals: Ten Years after Barschall, 1998. Available at
http://www.library.wisc.edu/projects/glsdo/cost.html.
6 http://www.lib.uconn.edu/about/publications/scholarlycommunication.html#Whatcan
7 http://www.arl.org/create/home.html
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