Journal Review Project (2010--Completed)

Funding for Journal Subscriptions

Like other university departments and units, the Emory Libraries must reduce FY 2010 expenditures. The rate of inflation for journals has been disproportionally higher than the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the last 20 years, which has led to what some have called the "serial crisis."

The present rate of inflation for print journals continues to run between 8% (for most US journal publications) and 11% (for most non-US journal publications.) This inflation, coupled with university-mandated cuts in our budget, require that we review our journal holdings to reduce our expenditures.

The Emory libraries have been mandated with a cut of $1,064,582 to our FY 2010 budgets for library materials - our budgets for books, journals, databases, and other library materials. To reach this mandated cut we need to reduce current journals expenditures by approximately $150,000.

Review Criteria

Subject specialists at the Emory libraries have reviewed Emory's current subscriptions of more than 4000 journals and made recommendations based on the following criteria:

• Relevance, content, scope, duplication, and coverage of the journal to its intended audience. What is the impact on teaching and research at Emory if this journal is cancelled? Is the content already available in other resources or formats? If multiple formats are held by the Emory libraries, can duplication be eliminated?
• Organization of the material: How current is the content? Is the content searchable in SFX (E-Journals@Emory)? If not, is there a more cost-effective version of the journal which can be integrated into our instance of SFX?
• Cost: What is the cost of the journal in print, electronic, or microformat?
• Usage: Does circulation and vendor usage data indicate substantial use of the print, electronic, or microformat version of the journal?
• Emory affiliation: Does the journal have a strong identity with Emory? Is the author or editor a member of the Emory faculty?
• Availability of this journal at other area libraries.

Subject specialists at the Emory libraries have reviewed Emory's current subscriptions of more than 4000 journals. From that initial list, library subject specialists now have identified more than 300 PRINT journal titles for possible cancellation (see attached spreadsheet below).

When Will Cancellations Take Effect?

Print copies of most of the journals selected for cancellation will no longer be received beginning January 2010. Depending on previous subscription commitments, however, cancellation of some print journal titles may not be implemented until January 2011.