Study Identifies Factors That Could Lead to Cancelled Subscriptions

["Foley Virginia" <VFoley@bos.blackwellpublishing.com>]

NEWS RELEASE

Bob Campbell, Publishing Research Consortium
Tel: +44 (0)1865 476118
Robert.Campbell@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com

Chris Beckett, Scholarly Information Strategies
Tel: +44 (0)1865 812058
chris@scholinfo.com

Study Identifies Factors That Could Lead to Cancelled 
Subscriptions

London, United Kingdom- November 9, 2006 -A major study of 
librarian purchasing preferences has revealed the factors that 
could prompt a librarian to substitute Open Access materials for 
journal subscriptions. According to a study commissioned by the 
Publishing Research Consortium, the length of the embargo period 
and peer review are key determinants in a librarian's decision to 
maintain or cancel journal subscriptions.

This study raises questions about previous claims that librarians 
will continue to subscribe to journals, even when some or all of 
the content is freely available on institutional archives.

"Overall, librarians are very sensitive to quality, how quickly 
the content is made available, the version of the content, and 
content cost", said Chris Beckett, Director, Scholarly 
Information Strategies Limited. "As a result of our work, we can 
simulate how these different factors interact and what effect 
different combinations of factors have on the relative appeal of 
subscription journals, licensed databases, and content on Open 
Access archives."

The study, conducted by Scholarly Information Strategies in July 
2006, surveyed over 400 librarians internationally. As well as 
collecting their general attitudes to open access, conjoint 
analysis was employed to identify the relative importance of 
specific decision-making factors such as price, embargo period, 
article version, and reliability of access. This approach avoids 
selection bias and produced data models that show the likely 
impact on subscription or cancellation behavior under different 
market scenarios. The model outputs can be highly useful for 
developing products, understanding price sensitivity and 
examining other practical issues.

"Because most content is delivered to the research community via 
libraries, it is critical to understand how librarians make 
decisions," said Bob Campbell, Chairman, Steering Group of the 
Publishing Research Consortium and President, Blackwell 
Publishing. "This study will help publishers better analyze and 
evaluate how alternative acquisition methods might impact how 
they sell journal subscriptions to librarians."

The full report of the study, "Self-Archiving and Journal 
Subscriptions: Co-existence or Competition?" can be accessed on 
the PRC site at <http://www.publishingresearch.org.uk/>

About the Publishing Research Consortium

The Publishing Research Consortium is a group representing 
publishers and societies supporting global research into 
scholarly communication, with the aim to provide unbiased data 
and objective analysis. Our objective is to support work that is 
scientific and pro-scholarship. Overall, we aim to promote an 
understanding of the role of publishing and its impact on 
research and teaching. For more information, visit 
<http://www.publishingresearch.org.uk/> .

####