Research intelligence - We're not paying that much!

"The release earlier this month of a report estimating the cost to the UK academy of carrying out peer review signalled that, after years of grumbling about rising prices for journal subscriptions, universities just may be ready to say enough is enough. The report, commissioned by JISC Collections, the UK universities' subscription negotiation consortium, put the cost at up to £165 million. Lorraine Estelle, the consortium's chief executive, said the report aimed to help convince large journal publishers to rein in price hikes, which have continued to outstrip inflation despite pleas for restraint. Ann Rossiter, executive director of the Society of College, National and University Libraries, described the provision of academic journals as a public-private partnership that depended on "both parties contributing and playing fair". She said publishers, some of which boast operating margins of 35 per cent, had reached a "wake up and smell the coffee" moment. "They may not realise, but their gung-ho attitude is pushing the system to breaking point. They are talking about rises above 25 per cent over the next few years when universities are seeing budgets fall." ...The academy's fightback was heralded in June by the financially troubled University of California system, which threatened to cancel its subscription to Nature journals and to organise an academic boycott of Nature Publishing Group when the publisher tried to quadruple charges for access to its e-journals...."