7 June 2002
Ingenta Institute Lanches International Site Licensing Study
The Ingenta Institute, the independent research organisation of the scholarly communications industry, has announced the commencement of a comprehensive international study into the impact of site licensing and consortia developments on the scholarly communication process.
Over the past few years, the consortia site licensing debate has rushed to the forefront because of the increasing popularity of consortia site negotiation between publishers and library groupings or library consortia. However, little has been done to investigate the impact of these dealings comprehensively i.e., the international reach of these deals and the complexities of meeting all partners needs. For example, publishers desire maximum profitability, while libraries seek the most relevant collection at the most efficient cost.
Consisting of three separate studies, the research program The Impact of Site Licensing and Consortia Developments will run over a period of two years and be coordinated by the Ingenta Institute.
Detailed findings from the first phases of the separate qualitative and quantitative UK and US studies will be announced and published in 2002 at the Royal Society, London on 24th September and at the Charleston Advisor pre-conference at Charleston, South Carolina on 30th October.
Conducting the first study, renowned information industry expert, Donald W. King, Professor at The School of Information Sciences, Pittsburgh University, is compiling a comprehensive review of consortium licensing in the USA. In recent years, library consortia have added electronic journals to their menu of services, but little is known about the impact that these developments are having on the rest of the publishing journal system. King is examining in detail the system channel involving consortia e-journal services; the trends in these consortia considerations; how best consortia can be served and contribute to other system participants and how publishers, consortia and libraries can improve their decision-making and optimise the consortia system channel.
The second study has been awarded to UK-based research consultancy Key Perspectives Ltd, who has been retained to undertake pilot studies on the impact of consortium site licenses on scholarly journal publishers and academic libraries. Personal interviews with senior publishers and librarians are planned in the US, UK and continental Europe.
The final (and third) study, contracted to City University, will analyse site licensing and consortia developments from the users' perspective. Taking usage data from those international publishers who offer consortia site licenses and agree to participate in the study, City University will analyse these statistics to determine whether the consortia deal, sometimes referred to as the 'Big Deal' by industry insiders, delivers advantages to the user and, on a broader scale, to identify significant changes in the scholarly information environment.
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