References

Multidisciplinary

Evaluating big deal journal bundles

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Authors Theodore C. Bergstrom, Paul N. Courant, R. Preston McAfee, Michael A. Williams

Significance Little is known about the prices that universities pay for bundled access to the journals published by large commercial publishers. Publishers have insisted that libraries sign confidentiality clauses that keep these prices secret. We used Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain copies of the contracts signed by a large number of institutions. We report the results of this investigation and compare the bundled subscription prices charged by for-profit and nonprofit publishers.