SUNY Potsdam Takes Tough Stand Against American Chemical Society Prices (SPARC)

Jenica Rogers knew that chemists on the Potsdam campus of the State University of New York relied on information from the American Chemical Society journals, and, as the Director of Libraries, she felt compelled to provide what they needed to be effective scholars.   But after five years of prices rising 71 percent, the cost of this year’s ACS online package would have consumed more than 10 percent of her total acquisitions budget. (The exact cost of the 2013 proposal is confidential.)    In May, she and others from the SUNY system met for seven hours with representatives from the ACS to negotiate a better deal. But they failed to reach an agreement. Rogers then had to go to the chemistry faculty personally to explain the situation.  'For me, professionally, it was hard. I know what a good department they are,' said Rogers.  She laid out the proposed price – another 8 percent increase – and said they were 'horrified.' Rogers finally said: 'It’s going to keep going. I can’t do this.' The faculty agreed. There was consensus that this year the ACS had gone too far. The price was just too high. SUNY Potsdam did not subscribe to the ACS online journal package for 2013.  To meet the chemical information needs, the campus will instead use a combination of the Royal Society of Chemistry content, ACS single title subscriptions, the ACS back file, and ScienceDirect from Elsevier.   “We’re doing this because the ACS pricing model is unsustainable for our institution and we were unable to find common ground with the sales team from the ACS,” Rogers wrote in her blog, where she has openly chronicled her experience. 'Instead, we explored other options and exercised them. You could do the same if you find yourself in a position similar to ours as ACS standardizes their pricing, and maybe together we can make enough choices to make our voices heard in meaningful ways.' Over the course of the negotiations, Roger’s realized that her concerns were bigger than simply determining what her campus can afford to pay for a single publisher’s chemistry journals.   'I don’t just want a good deal for Potsdam. I want them to fix the problem…It’s an ACS problem,' said Rogers. 'They are limiting access to scientific information and damaging science. They are pricing entire groups of people out of information. It’s wrong.'   Further, Rogers said she will not agree to anymore non-disclosure forms with publishers going forward. 'I want to talk about it publicly,' she said.  While ACS has maintained it needs to charge higher fees to cover costs, Rogers says she has found that even some members of the society are skeptical.   'It strikes people as a huge nonprofit that’s making giant profits,' said Rogers..."