Due to rising costs, Texas State’s University Libraries (UL) is continuously evaluating its subscriptions and seeking to be efficient with its available funding. As a result, UL is canceling Elsevier’s Scopus database subscription effective December 31, 2022. Scopus is a comprehensive citation database that has significant content overlap with Clarivate’s Web of Science, which will be retained.
In 2021, a library team surveyed faculty, staff, and graduate students on their use of Scopus and Web of Science. The analysis also considered usage statistics, content/discipline coverage, and product preference at peer institutions. Of the two databases, Web of Science emerged as the preferred product.
Most research libraries provide access to only one of these resources due to their cost and overlap. UL has been able to offer both in recent years but in an environment with a flat library fee and 6% annual subscription inflation it cannot continue to do so.
While Texas State researchers will be losing access to the full Scopus database, UL will retain university access to the more limited Scopus Preview, which provides journal level metrics and rankings, plus article metrics for the most recent 10 publications by each author.
For questions about accessing or using Web of Science, please contact your college liaison. You can also access Web of Science training materials as well as recorded and live training sessions from Clarivate.
UL staff continues to leverage consortial partnerships and seek unique and innovative ways to make the most efficient use of its available funds while also advocating for open access. The Texas Coalition for United Action recently announced the results of a long-term negotiation deal with Elsevier for its 44 member institutions including a new deal with Texas State University.
Anyone with questions or suggestions related to library subscriptions and collections should contact their college liaison or Paivi Rentz at prentz@txstate.edu.
This article contributed by Head Acquisitions Librarian Paivi Rentz.