Why are the Emory Libraries changing our journal subscriptions with Elsevier?
- Elsevier is a "big deal" journal package for which the Libraries pay $3M annually (with significant annual market increases). This package, along with others, have become unsustainable financially under current budgetary circumstances. There are no market pressure on individual journals, so new titles are continually launched and added to the package.
- Big deal arrangements have crowded out the acquisition of other resources that align with existing and evolving research and teaching needs and programs at Emory.
- Growth in open access availability and the federal (Nelson memo) and private funders mandates have made more content free to read.
- There is now an Increased ability to provide quick, cost-effective access to individual journal articles for some journals rather than having to rely solely on subscriptions..
What is in our 2026 custom package from Elsevier?
- We have negotiated a customized collection of around 600 titles for 2026.
- The Libraries will be saving around 22%, or $680,000.
How will I access articles in discontinued Elsevier journals starting January 1, 2026?
Our goal is to minimize as much disruption as possible to needed research articles. The Libraries will continue to offer delivery of articles in unsubscribed/discontinued journals at no cost to you via a number of services, including Article Galaxy Scholar. Some archival access will be available for ongoing core titles. Perpetual access to purchased backfiles for many journals will remain available.
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- Additional ways to access Elsevier articles in discontinued journals include:
- Request via Interlibrary Loan (most articles available within 24 hours)
- Search in Articles+ in Emory Libraries Library Search, which includes most of our full text databases and provides access to our expedited delivery service (article galaxy scholar) for eligible titles.
- Use Libkey, which has now been integrated with Article Galaxy Scholar to allow for quicker access to articles from selected discontinued journals.
- Locate open access copies of articles using free plug-ins like Unpaywall, Google Scholar and PubMed Central
- Reach out to an author and requesting a copy directly.
- Use Clinical Key (for many health titles)
More detailed information can be found on our Alternative Access page.
What is happening to Clinics titles?
We will no longer subscribe directly to most Clinics titles on ScienceDirect, but these titles will remain accessible via Clinical Key, along with a good number
Have other libraries taken similar measures?
How did we decide what titles to retain for our customized collection and which titles to discontinue?
To create the new customized Elsevier journal list, the Libraries used the following process.
- We started with local and publisher supplied usage and cost- per-use metrics, privileging journals with higher use and lower cost per use. In many cases, the cost per article would be cheaper to acquire at the article, rather than subscription level.
- Other metrics taken into consideration included:
- Faculty requests
- Open access availability
- Backfile content availability
- Coverage via other sources to which the Libraries subscribe, such as Clinical Key
- Emory citations and authorship
- Subject librarian and informationist knowledge of departments and scholarship in their respective areas
We have attempted to balance usage and publication patterns, faculty requests. subject coverage, address the needs of smaller programs, and ensure access to critically needed titles. We were able to accommodate many requests, but some titles were not able to be included to meet our budgetary pressures.