Cash-strapped libraries threaten to end journal subscription deals over rising costs - News - Felix Online

"In the middle of these high-level negotiations, both public and private, are the researchers, who of course don’t pay for their consumption; when the cost is zero, demand is infinite. RLUK is searching for an alternative to the current arrangement with big publishers. They are developing a contingency plan which will allow them to walk away from the publishers while reassuring academics that their research won’t suffer. A “world expert in document supply”, as Deborah Shorley refers to him, is developing the contingency plan at Imperial. The plan will involve purchasing the must-have, high-use journals individually (research has shown that 5% of journals account for 40% of journal subscription use) and supplying other papers through document supply, which means that researchers are able to read an abstract and request delivery of the paper, commonly from the British Library. Delivery times for document supply can be less than two hours electronically. Additionally, 10% of the material that libraries receive through paid subscriptions is already available through open-access."