Tilburg University cancels Nature and Science
Starting 1 February, the academic journals Nature and Science will not be consultable anymore at Tilburg University. Library and IT Services (LIS) regrets the termination of the subscription to the journals, but says it is forced to this decisions by an insufficient budget.
The budget information carriers is a marked budget for LIS. The money can only be used for information carriers such as magazines, books and databases. In the past years, this budget has decreased and the costs for subscriptions (or subscription packages)- the so-called Big Deals – have increased substantially. Big Deals are agreements that the large publishing companies have with universities. This can involve up to 2000 (electronic) titles.
Why Science and Nature?
The choice as to what can be cut, depends on the possibilities. Tilburg University cannot get out of a Big Deal until it ends, and new negotiations have to go in association with other universities, because of the governments’ Open Acces plans. Because of that, Big Deals cannot be terminated now. One of the few options was to terminate the subscription to Science and Nature.
Loose articles from the journals can still be bought by pay per view. This will cost $ 20 (Science) or € 30 (Nature).
