Death By 1,000 Cuts | Periodicals Price Survey 2018

"Flat budgets, price increases, and a reliance on status journals for tenure and promotion keep familiar pressures on the serials marketplace

Whether applied to a failed business arrangement or an ancient form of torture, “death by a thousand cuts” signifies a larger outcome that occurs as the cumulative result of multiple smaller events. For the periodicals market, the lingering impact of the Great Recession is one such gash. Libraries receiving a declining percentage of overall university budgets, another. Promotion and tenure systems based upon publication, yet another. Research output evaluation based upon citation metrics—cut. Six percent serials cost inflation each year since 2012—cut, cut, cut. For the last 24 years, the titles of this annual survey have reflected the library journals environment. From “Reality Bites” to “Fracking the Ecosystem,” the articles have detailed the prominent issues in serials at the time of publication, many of which have been with us for decades. At times the library world seems mired in the equivalent of the story line of the movie Groundhog Day, in which the lead character is trapped in a time loop, destined to repeat the same actions over and over until he makes significant changes in his attitude and, therefore, his situation...."