Journal puchase, journal licensing and the growth in open access

[Frederick Friend <ucylfjf@ucl.ac.uk>]

The transition from journal purchase to journal licensing in the 
1990s changed the relationship between journal publishers and 
librarians and may have encouraged support from the library 
community for open access. The growth in licensing led to the 
creation of the Liblicense list as a service to the world-wide 
library community struggling to find the best way of dealing with 
this fundamental change in the way journal content could be 
acquired and handled. Looking back to a "golden age" is rarely 
justified, but the ongoing problems librarians now have with 
journal publishers may be seen in a new light when compared with 
the largely harmonious relationship before the adoption of the 
licensing model.

With hindsight librarians may have accepted too readily the 
publishers' argument that licensing rather than purchase was 
necessary to manage digital content. Publishers were worried that 
digital content would leak through piracy, but piracy has not 
been eliminated totally even when all the world's libraries have 
accepted the licensing model. Where is the evidence that piracy 
would cost publishers vast sums of money under a purchasing 
contract? Would even an increase in the cost of piracy justify 
the huge sums academic institutions and publishers spend on 
negotiating and policing licences?  Rather what has happened is 
that publishers have used the licensing model to exercise control 
over the dissemination of publicly-funded research to such a 
degree that not only the library community but many researchers 
and research funders are determined to move to an alternative 
model which will yield greater benefit.

The principal arguments for open access are positive in nature 
but they are born out of some of the disadvantages of the 
licensing model. The licensing model is designed to be 
restrictive in respect of authorised users and permitted uses, 
restrictions which limit the benefits from greater use of the 
content. Into this restrictive atmosphere open access has come 
like a breath of fresh air, promising growth in use and 
citations. Long-term preservation, once straightforward when a 
journal volume was purchased outright, has now become a legal 
nightmare. Open access content still faces technical challenges 
to ensure long-term preservation but they are challenges the 
academic and library communities can resolve themselves without 
the additional complication of ensuring compliance with 
publishers' licensing terms. It is such issues that entered the 
relationship between publishers and librarians through the 
introduction of the licensing model in the 1990s, issues which 
now so frequently spoil a relationship which should be one of 
mutual benefit.

Fred Friend
JISC Scholarly Communication Consultant
Honorary Director Scholarly Communication UCL