Information services provider EBSCO, US, has released serials price projections for 2013. The report, based on surveys of a wide range of publishers and reviews of historical serials pricing data, provides serials price projections that will assist information professionals as they make budgeting decisions for the upcoming renewal season.
EBSCO anticipates the overall effective publisher price increases for academic and academic/medical libraries for 2013 (before currency impact) to be in the range of 5 to 7 percent.
Within the academic library and academic publishing markets, this past year in many ways represented the continuation of trends previously addressed by EBSCO in previous Serials Price Projection reports. For the 2013 subscription year, it is expected that library budgets will continue to be under pressure. Large publishers will continue to aggressively push the Big Deal, while smaller publishers will work hard to maintain their share of the remaining funds. Also, packaged content will continue to be preferred over individual subscriptions, but the share of budget demanded by packages plus annual price increases will result in modest acceleration of package cancellations.
The report notes that the open access (OA) movement appears to be gaining momentum. While the concept of OA publishing has been in the market for the past decade, the model has gained traction in recent years due to a confluence of factors, including improvements in technology and digital publishing; governmental and funding policies regarding the broadest possible access to scientific research; and the budget crisis within academic libraries for subscription content.
Most library budgets are not expected to rise by the same annual percentage as publisher price increases. Interested parties may visit www.ebsco.com to read EBSCO's 2013 Serials Price Projection Report in its entirety.
