Trapped in Transformative Agreements? A Multifaceted Analysis of >1,000 Contracts

"Transformative agreements between academic publishers and research institutions are ubiquitous. The ESAC Initiative lists more than 1,000 contracts in its database. We make use of this unique dataset by web-scraping the details of every contract to substantially expand the overview dataset provided by the Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges (ESAC) initiative. Based on that, we combine qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct an in-depth analysis of the contract characteristics and the TA landscape. Our analysis demonstrates that research institutions seem to be ‘trapped’ in transformative agreements. Instead of being a bridge towards a fully Open Access world, academia is stuck in the hybrid system. This endows the legacy (non-Open Access) publishing houses with substantial market power. It raises entry barriers, lowers competition, and increases costs for libraries and universities."