The University Libraries is negotiating a renewal contract with the scholarly publisher Elsevier for its ScienceDirect, Scopus, PURE, SciVal and Funding Institutional library databases. The Libraries makes this content available to scholarly researchers and others across Penn State.
“The University Libraries’ current ScienceDirect subscription, which ends on Dec. 31, 2021, includes more than 2,000 journals. The subscription cost has been increasing significantly over the years and has become financially unsustainable,” said Mihoko Hosoi, University Libraries associate dean for collections, research and scholarly communications. “The University Libraries, as with other Penn State divisions, has encountered financial challenges during the pandemic and must continue to be mindful of budget realities while being responsible stewards of its funds. As a result, the Libraries intends to keep essential content available to researchers and contain costs by negotiating persistently with Elsevier, which is a for-profit scholarly publishing company.”
Kelly Thormodson, Penn State College of Medicine’s associate dean for library and information services and director of the Harrell Health Sciences Library, offered additional context. “In the academic world, staff and faculty researchers provide scholarly publishers with much of their required labor as authors, peer reviewers and editors who do this work usually for free,” Thormodson said. “This work and the act of publishing in scholarly journals are essential for research, teaching, and faculty promotion and tenure. Unfortunately, covering increasing costs of library journal subscriptions has become unfeasible for many institutions of higher education.”
Some research libraries, including peer institutions such as those in the University of California system, have successfully negotiated fees as well as open access publishing agreements with Elsevier. Libraries approach such negotiations differently depending on their priorities.
University Libraries negotiators will do their best to ensure that Penn State faculty and students have access to the resources they need for education and research, while simultaneously being optimal stewards of the University’s funds. University Libraries representatives will present an update on these negotiations to the University Faculty Senate and the University Research Council this fall.
