Putting a price on Europe’s spending on scientific journals

Europe’s academic institutions and libraries are spending over €383 million (£333 million) on their biggest contracts with scientific publishers. The figures, gathered for the first time, cover the price of 66 of 88 so-called ‘big deal’ contracts in 2016–17. These cover large bundles of journals for a wide range of fields. Contracts usually run for three years, with prices increasing each year – often by up to 4%. Adding in contracts for e-books and databases took expenditure to over €421 million. Some 65% of spending on periodicals was with Dutch publishing giant Elsevier.