Publisher prices to increase by five to seven per cent next year
Publisher price increases for academic and academic/medical libraries are expected to be in the range of five to seven per cent (before currency impact) next year. This is according to the 2015 Serials Price Projection Report from EBSCO Information Services.
The company says that the report is based on surveys of a wide range of publishers and reviews of historical serials pricing data. The aim is to assist information professionals as they make budgeting decisions for the upcoming renewals season.
According to EBSCO, ‘price increases seem to have levelled off recently.’ The company attributes this to the proliferation of multi-term, fixed-increase licence agreements and the growth in the number of open-access journals. However, the report noted that the majority of OA projects seek to shift expenses from libraries to research, which may mean that institutions that do not produce significant amounts of research published in OA journals may experience reduced costs but those that produce a relatively high volume of OA published scholarship may face increased overall coasts.
The company also noted that price changes could vary by institution type, size or research intensity more so than it has in past years. In addition, the report noted that the decoupling of print and online pricing could result in significant increases for institutions whose patrons still rely on print copies.