Is the Leakage of Research Journals beneficial to Libraries, or does it pose another hurdle in attempting to gain leverage towards Publishers?

For decades Libraries have been the subject of submission to Publishing Companies and their subscription big deal bundles. Underdogs no more, Libraries have been able to entirely walk away from subscriptions with their highest leverage thus far — leakage. Using this issue against Publishers puts Libraries in a prosperous position as they can exert more pressure on a publisher by threatening to cancel due to leakage. It allows Libraries more power when it comes to significant deal negotiations.

Sci-Hub, along with other services, is responsible for the content that is ‘leaking’ out of publisher sites through to users. Now, Publishing Companies face a ‘real fear of losing library sales altogether’ (Schonfeld, 2019) due to these sites. Publishers are noting that a decreasing share of the usage of a given article is coming from their content platforms, which are vital vehicles in how they ‘monetise the library channel’ (Schonfeld, 2019).

Proving successful for Libraries that even academic Publishers such as Elsevier have been affected by the threat of leakage — resulting in large dents in their profits. Losing ‘10 million euros’ (Qureshi, 2019) from Norway alone, who have alongside Germany and California decided to end their subscription. If this is the result of an established Publishing Company, then how are others going to stay afloat if Libraries continue to use leaked research, mainly if they depend on a subscription business model?

Content Syndication is an attempt of Publishers to control leakage and holds a lot of opportunities if they were to follow the model. Libraries aiming to maximise usage of licenced e-resources to justify subscriptions and the budgets that support them will be for content syndication. As a result, those Libraries will continue to license entitlement rights directly from Publishers who then use Syndication to track additional sources of usage beyond the Publisher’s site. (Currently done to ResearchGate via a login) However, if Libraries are attempting to improve their negotiating positions with Publishers. For example, if they are from developing countries and cannot afford subscriptions, then this can be another hurdle for them, especially if that Publishing Company has already teamed up with an illicit site.

Although this can sound disheartening for budget-cut Libraries, this is not the end! Companies are currently piloting the model, and nothing is set in stone. Alternatively, Libraries are willing to support the read and publish model, which proposes that all articles will be open access and that the publisher agrees to a fair price purely dependant on the article processing fee. Libraries are just vouching for a fair deal but have turned to illicit alternatives due to hard-headed Publishers who are not lenient on prices.

The value of Libraries to the profit of Scholarly Publishing is no doubt substantial, yet the loss of these institutions alone is not enough to budge subscription prices. Leakage puts the ball in the Libraries court during negotiations. Still, the increase in Publishers using Content Syndication enables a timer to go off with regards to how long Libraries can take advantage of this moment.

Buranyi, S. (2017). Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].

Qureshi, F. (2019). Norway joins the ranks of Germany and Sweden, cancels subscription with Elsevier. [online] Editage Insights. Available at: https://www.editage.com/insights/norway-joins-the-ranks-of-germany-and-sweden-cancels-subscription-with-elsevier [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

Schonfeld, R. (2019). Isn’t Leakage Good for Libraries?. [online] The Scholarly Kitchen. Available at: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2019/03/21/leakage-good-libraries/ [Accessed 23 Oct. 2019].

Schonfeld, R. (2018). Will Publishers Syndicate their Content?. [online] The Scholarly Kitchen. Available at: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2018/10/15/syndicate-content/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].