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\section{The System as It Stands}
A study published in July 2014 collected
information on contracts from 55 university and 12 consortia of
libraries’ contracts libraries dealings with academic
publishing companies publishers \cite{Bergstrom_2014}. 360 contracts were received, documenting prices and bundling of deals from 9 major publishers (including Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, ACS, and Oxford University Press). They show the results of
a lack of transparency, opaque sales practices, manipulation, and
good varying degrees of negotiation
skills: publishers can
In the mid 1990s, with the shift from
primarily print print-only to
increasingly digital distribution, economic formulations changed. No longer would a research university \textit{need} to subscribe to multiple copies of
the in demand
journals, no journals. No longer would storage space play a significant role in decisions
(estimated total (e.g. estimated storage and maintenance cost for a 2500 page journal volume range from \$300-1000).
No longer,
And publishers could now offer their whole catalog of journals (from high impact to esoterically specialized) at one discounted “Big Deal” price. In the own words of Derk Haank, then Elsevier and current Springer CEO:
\begin{quote}
But what it [electronic publishing] does do is to
dramatically \textbf{\textit{dramatically lower the marginal costs of allowing
access access}} ...
[It] [Cost for each new users] is virtually nil and that means that we should be more creative in the business model.... where we make a deal with the university, the consortia or the whole country, where we say for this amount we will allow all your people to use our material, unlimited, 24 hours per day. And, basically the price then depends on a rough estimate of how useful is that product for you; and we can adjust it over time.
[emphasis added]
\end{quote}
Here, “adjust it over time” means mandate an average 5-6\% price increase annually. Bergstrom, et al calculate
in their study:
\begin{quote}
“A bundle whose price increased by 5.5\% per year would \textbf{double its price between 1999 and 2012}, whereas over the same period the US consumer price index rose by 38\%.” [emphasis added]
