Taiwan Tech to Discontinue Subscription to Elsevier ScienceDirect Starting 2017

Dear Faculty, Students and Staff,

Greetings!



The Taiwan Tech Library has for a long time been committed to providing all books, journals and other resources to support the university’s teaching, researching and learning activities. In recent years this has been possible thanks in particular to the university’s increased funding to cover rising publication costs, and the library itself has also been actively participating in various library consortiums in order to lower the cost of purchasing publications, so that all faculty members and students can continue to benefit from these academic resources.

However, the university’s Elsevier ScienceDirect subscription fee from 2013 to 2016 (see below) has been increasing annually at a rate of 8 – 10%. The subscription fee in 2016 was about 6.47 million TWD, taking up 21.7% of the entire budget for electronic journal databases (about 29.82 million TWD) and making it difficult to purchase other academic resources. In recent years we have already asked each department to cut several database subscriptions, including ASTM, Industrial Economics and Knowledge, Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC), ICONDA and Mag V.

Elsevier ScienceDirect 2013 2014 2015 2016 Subscription Fee (TWD) 5,026,008 5,451,465 5,884,247 6,469,159 Increase 8.5% 7.9% 9.9%

Elsevier’s unreasonable pricing policy has long been criticized by universities around the world. Starting in late June 2016, the Elsevier ScienceDirect database committee under the Science & Technology Policy Research and Information Center’s Consortium on Core Electronic Resources in Taiwan (CONCERT) repeatedly negotiated with Elsevier, hoping that Elsevier would lower its 2017 subscription fee, decrease the annual price hike, increase the annual journal cancellation rate, and allow for selection from the Freedom Collection, etc., but unfortunately Elsevier’s offer still differed greatly from the expectation of the overall market in Taiwan. Therefore, more than 75% of the university libraries in Taiwan have decided not to accept the company’s offer.

The Taiwan Tech library did have a plan to deal with Elsevier—we originally planned to support CONCERT’s boycott until December 31, 2016, after which we would proceed to negotiate a price with Elsevier. However, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education Department of Higher Education’s policy and in the spirit of camaraderie with the other schools, the Taiwan Tech library has decided to join the collective boycott against Elsevier with other top universities in Taiwan.

To minimize the inconvenience caused by the cancellation of Elsevier ScienceDirect, the library will devise an alternative plan and do everything we can to assist faculty members and students with their academic journal needs.

During this difficult time, we ask that all members of the university maintain a united front and stand firmly behind our plea. Your kind understanding is greatly appreciated. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact our library staff, as below:

Chin, Hsiao Ling, Division Leader, phone: 2737-6187; email: chihl@mail.ntust.edu.tw

Cheng, Chia-Chi, phone: 2737-6193; email: chia@mail.ntust.edu.tw

Chao, De-Lin, Division Leader, phone: 2737-6192; email: chaodl@mail.ntust.edu.tw

Best regards,

Huang, Yan-Jyi, Library Director

December 9, 2016

Alternatives to Elsevier ScienceDirect

From January 1, 2017 Taiwan Tech will discontinue its subscription to Elsevier ScienceDirect’s electronic journal database. This should affect only some of your journal needs, but if you find that you are unable to access the journals or articles you require, please try the following alternative methods:

1. Search online databases, such as Google Scholar

2. Search the institutional repository that the author belongs to

3. Contact the author directly

4. Send a request through the National Document Delivery Service (NDDS)

In addition, the library is in the process of applying to join the international resource sharing system Rapid ILL. We will be posting updates whenever there is progress on this.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the library staff, as below:

Chin, Hsiao Ling, Division Leader, phone: 2737-6187; email: chihl@mail.ntust.edu.tw

Cheng, Chia-Chi, phone: 2737-6193; email: chia@mail.ntust.edu.tw

Chao, De-Lin, Division Leader, phone: 2737-6192; email: chaodl@mail.ntust.edu.tw

Best regards,

Huang, Yan-Jyi, Library Director

December 9, 2016