EUA has published a preview of the results of the latest edition of its Big Deals survey. The large-scale initiative covers 31 consortia in Europe, representing universities and other organisations, responsible for the negotiation of Big Deal contracts with publishers. The preliminary results show that more than one billion euros are spent every year across Europe in electronic resources, of which more than 700 million go to periodicals alone. These numbers are subject to an average annual increase of 3.6%. Notably, universities support about 72% of these costs. The survey results illustrate EUA’s contribution to increasing transparency in the publishing area, particularly from the point of view of universities. This aim is also in line with the recent complaint that EUA presented to the European Commission, DG Competition, on the lack of transparency and competition in the academic publishing market in Europe and beyond. Conducted in 2018, this is EUA’s second Big Deals survey. The first edition was published early last year. Not only has the number of surveyed consortia increased from 27, but the quality of the data gathered has improved greatly. EUA will link the outcomes of this survey with other key areas in its work, namely institutional policies on Open Access, research assessment methodologies and its impact analysis of Plan S . The full survey report will be published in April 2019 on the occasion of the EUA Annual Conference.

1. February 2019
Second Big Deals Survey:
Preview of the results
EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATION
#BigDealsReport

2. © EUA 2019
Big Deals Survey 2018
Key information Data collection:
August-November 2018
Respondents:
31 Consortia in 30 countries negotiating on behalf of the
university sector and other higher education and research
performers
Focus on five major publishers:
Elsevier, SpringerNature, Taylor & Francis, Wiley, American
Chemical Society – periodicals only
Data analysed in aggregated fashion
Most data refers to big deal contracts ongoing in 2017 or 2018
2

3. © EUA 2019
Big Deals Survey 2018
Organisations at
national level
involved in
negotiating big
deals
3
n= 31/31
19%
52%
10%
7%
3%
10%
Consortia of universities and other higher
education institutions
Consortia of universities and other higher
education institutions, plus other
organisations
Consortia of libraries
Only the national library
Only the government
Other

4. © EUA 2019
Big Deals Survey 2018
University leadership has a role in the
negotiation of big deals
4
n= 31/31
University leadership has a role as:
n= 17/18
58%
42%
Yes
No
Other includes: negotiation only for some publishers; defining strategy.
18%
24%59%
Part of the
negotiating team
The lead negotiator
Other

5. © EUA 2019
Big Deals Survey 2018
Main points of concern
for higher education
and research
institutions in the
negotiation process
5n= 31/31
81%
65%
65%
58%
42%
32%
29%
26%
26%
16%
0 20 40 60 80 100
Cost control
Cost reduction
Inclusion of subscriptions and Open Access in one agreement
Maintain content (journals) across contracts
Early termination rights
Preservation and access via local, consortium or national infrastructure
Set embargo periods in accordance with funder requirements on regional,
national or European level
Service-level agreements on Open Access services provided by publishers
(e.g. CC-BY)
Provisions for text and data mining
Number of Open Access articles in hybrid journals (as a percentage of total
articles published)
Percentage of consortia

6. © EUA 2019
EUA Big Deals Survey 2018
Total annual expenditure on big deals
6
For all subscriptions to electronic resources (including periodicals, databases, e-books) by national consortia:
Total (31 consortia, representing 30 European countries) = ~ 1 025 253 055 EUR (estimate for 2018)
This is a conservative figure not including:
- Article Processing Charges (APCs)
- Consortia other than those participating in the survey
- Individual institutional contracts with publishers
For periodicals only in the surveyed consortia:
Total (31 consortia, representing 30 European countries) = ~ 726 350 945 EUR (average yearly increase 3.6%)
Proportion of costs covered by universities in the consortia = 519 973 578 EUR (~72%)

7. © EUA 2019
Big Deals Survey 2018
Origin of funds for big deals
7n= 31/31
Is information on expenditure on
electronic documentary resources
publicly available?
n= 31/31
61%
39%
Yes
No
16%
42%
7%
36%
Only universities
Universities and
government/government
agency
Only
government/government
agency
Other

8. © EUA 2019
Big Deals Survey 2018
Is there a national Open
Access strategy or policy?
8
n= 31/31
Yes 68%
No 32%
Provisions for OA
Currently
(%)
In the future
(%)
No 55 0
Yes, only for green Open
Access
10 10
Yes, only for gold Open
Access
7 10
Yes, for both green and
gold Open Access
13 64
Other 16 16
Do current big deal contracts include specific
provisions for Open Access?

9. © EUA 2019
Big Deals Survey 2018
9
n= 30-31/31
APCs and subscriptions in same contract
Currently
(%)
In the future (%)
Yes 19 65
No (subscriptions and
APCs in different
contracts)
55 7
Other 26 3
Not yet decided 26
Are APCs and subscriptions included in the same contractual framework?

10. © EUA 2019
Big Deals Survey 2018
When APCs and subscriptions are included in
the same contract,
is there any provision or policy to
prevent “double dipping”?
10
n= 6/6
Yes 67%
No 33%
When APCs and subscriptions are not included in the same
contract,
are there any monitoring systems in place to collect
data on the funds spent on APCs?
n= 16/17
Yes 31%
No 69%

11. © EUA 2019
Big Deals Survey 2018
Are there laws facilitating the
transparency of contracts?
11n= 31/31
Do freedom of information laws
exist?
n= 31/31
71%
29%
Yes
No
74%
26%
Yes
No

12. © EUA 2019
Big Deals Survey 2018
Division of costs by
publisher (periodicals
only)
12
Total reported = 475 267 400 EUR
(data for 29 countries) 56%
18%
16%
7%
3%
Elsevier (incl. Cell Press)
Wiley
Springer (incl. Nature)
Taylor & Francis
American Chemical Society
Typically, the publishers’ annual increase varies between 3.3% - 4.7%. On average, the annual increase is 3.6%.

13. © EUA 2019
Big Deals Survey 2018
Relationship between amount spent on five big publishers per year and
GDP per capita
13
Calculation: Amount spent annually
on five big publishers / GDP per
capita
Interpretation: the result represents
the number of people who need to
work for one year (person/year),
given a certain GDP per capita, in
order to reach the same monetary
value as the cost of the five big
publishers in that country.
GDP per capita: source Eurostat
(data from 2016)
** Data for 2 publishers
*** Data for 3 publishers
**** Data for 4 publishers
500 1 000 1 500 2 000 2 500 3 000 3 500
C2
C9
C1
C14
C20****
C18
C17****
C5
C11
C24
C8
C7****
C21
C28
C19
C22
C6****
C10
C25
C4
C13
C3***
C30
C32**
C16
C31****
C15***
C12
Person/year

14. © EUA 2019
Key messages • There is wide coverage of European countries and their situations on big
deal negotiations.
• University leadership is increasingly involved in big deals (strategy and/or
negotiation), but there are still major differences across countries.
• There are different levels of knowledge on the total spent on big deals and
other related publication costs (APCs) across countries.
• Most contracts do not have Open Access provisions (currently).
• Many countries want to combine subscriptions and APCs in the same
contract; other countries think this is not yet advantageous for their situations.
• There are stark variations in big deal costs across countries compared to
GDP per capita.
14

15. Thank you for your attention
© EUA 2019
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