In 2018, the Dal Libraries began examining six journal packages from Cambridge, Oxford, Sage, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley to determine whether we should renew these subscriptions.

Since the summer, subject-based teams of librarians have been analyzing the data from the faculty and student consultations we held in the spring, using journal usage statistics, citations, and other metrics to determine the value of each package.

In November we decided to renew the full subscription for Cambridge. In early January, based on our review of both the data and the newly-released 2019 consortial pricing for the Oxford journal package we decided to renew the Oxford package as well. Analysis of the remaining four packages will continue in 2019 and updates will follow as that work is completed.

This is complex and time-consuming work. Thank you to the librarians for carefully analyzing all the factors leading to the decision to maintain the Oxford package. For more information, visit our collections management page or contact library.collections@dal.ca