Increasing transparency for e-journal subscriptions and Big Deals. A comprehensive assessment of e-journals in Science, Technology and Medicine (STM)

Abstract

The University library of Bern carried out a one-year survey of the frequency of use, cost and cost-per-article-use (CPU) of its e-journals. The collected data allows a comparison of journal bundles and individual subscriptions. The results show that the CPUs for Big Deals are in an acceptable range; however because of their high cost they limit the library’s flexibility to provide user-oriented resources.