Our library is considering drafting a policy in conjunction with our faculty
library committee regarding open access journal subscriptions.  Some open
access journals have a subscription model whereby if an institution holds a
membership/subscription, publishing authors will enjoy a substantial
discount on their article processing charges.  For instance, if an
institution has an institutional membership to Nucleic Acids Research (of
about $4180), then author charges for articles published from that
institution would be half the cost of those published from a non-member
institution ($2670).

Have any of your libraries developed a policy regarding such
subscriptions/memberships and whether the library will not subscribe/join to
secure discounts on author charges?  Have you developed any metrics to
determine when it is cost-efficient to subscribe/join?  I would appreciate
anything you would be willing to share.

Karen Hanus

Assistant Director

 <mailto:khanus@mcw.edu> khanus@mcw.edu

(414) 456-8329

Fax: (414) 456-6532

Medical College of Wisconsin Libraries

P. O. Box 26509

Milwaukee, WI 53226-0509

 <http://www.lib.mcw.edu> http://www.lib.mcw.edu