Testing usage-based e-journal pricing

Abstract

Following the report of a study in 2004 into journals business models, the UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) decided to arrange to undertake trials of two of the models addressed in the study. The models tested were: 'Pay-per-View Converting to Subscription and 'Core Plus Peripheral'. One of the reasons for the trials was to try to ascertain how the models compared with the Big Deals offered by publishers, but they also aimed to consider the technical, administrative, and commercial issues that might be involved in operating the models in practice. The trials took place during 2006 and involved five publishers and ten UK academic libraries. The models trialled in practice deviated from those addressed in the report of the original study and were based on accesses charged not on a pay-per-view basis, but on an agreed charge per full-text download. Users at the participating libraries had access during the year to all the journals published by the participating publishers. The trials produced a number of useful findings including the need to exclude charging for full-text downloads that were freely available, implications of usage data from intermediaries, issues of archival access, and budgeting and administrative considerations for both libraries and publishers.