The Elsevier Title Level Pricing: Dissecting the Bowl of Spaghetti from the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication is timely as the UMass Amherst Libraries negotiate a new contract with Elsevier. Due to confidentiality agreements and variables by institution, pricing is opaque and a fair market value for each title is difficult to ascertain. By analyzing Elsevier journal pricing data provided by 5 academic libraries, the authors examine how Elsevier sets its pricing on individual journal titles for libraries that are leaving “Big Deal” packages in favor of individual journal subscriptions. They found significant variations in how final prices were determined for each institution which resulted in a range of average list prices and average cost per journal. Despite Elsevier’s pricing discrimination, each institution gained significant savings – an average of $889,400 – by moving from their Big Deal to a collection of individual journal subscriptions. This study provides other institutions who are negotiating with Elsevier data upon which to benchmark their calculations for better pricing and terms.
