Helen Monagle, Vicki Ridge, University of Manchester In light of the Jisc Review of TA agreements, financial pressures faced by HE sector (UK) and uncertainty of block grant support, the sector is as a turning point. Without knowing what comes next we must continue working to analyse the deals to determine what we want and do not want from any future iterations. This session will discuss how we analyse these deals including the use of Unsub and EZProxy. We have begun to adapt our processes and will provide an overview of how we have established our data requirements and created a framework for assessing deals

1. VICKI RIDGE - DATA ANALYST
HEL EN MONAGLE - SUBSCRIPTIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS MANAGER

2. C.46,000
STUDENTS
NATIONAL
RESEARCH
LIBRARY
8 SITE
LIBRARIES
TEACHING RESEARCH

3. •
•
•
•
•
WIDER CONTEXT

4. Subscriptions = recurrent spend on
items selected to support research
and education (e.g. journals,
databases etc.
Books and e textbooks = one off
spend to support education (books)
TA deals = recurrent spend on
bundled packages from major
suppliers (read and publish deals).
Other = Special Collections, Digital
Archive Collections, Standing Orders
and Streaming Services.
Open Research = Research
Intelligence and University Funded
Open Access (e.g. publishing for those
without grant funding and support for
OA publishing initiatives).

5. 25 4
2 2
NUMBER OF
DEALS
METHODS OF
ANALYSIS
STAFF WORKING GROUPS
Number of staff working
on analysing these deals
from a Subscriptions side
in addition to other tasks
Library is currently signed
up to 25 transitional
agreements.
From the subs side: usage
data, cost per use, EZ
proxy, UnSub
We have two cross
disciplinary groups
dedicated to the present
and future state of these
deals

9. PLAN B
B
COST OF
DEALS
NUMBER OF
DEALS TAKEN
PLAN S
£ S

10. THE DATA

11. *TEST
DATA
• Standardisation of analysis
• Linking of datasets
• Flexibility to select and deselect titles
• Ability to share approach with other institutions

12. • We knew we needed to analyse all 25 TA deals early
• Reached out to key publishers to gather price lists and PCA data for
analysis
• Need to pull together PCA, usage stats, pricing and reading list data
into a master spreadsheet for each publisher, linked by ISSN
⚬ This helps to anticipate any ISSN errors that may occur in Unsub
⚬ This also allowed a quick glance approach, e.g. [X] titles are in
Reading Lists

13. • Like for Like Subscription
• Usage based Subscription >[~1,000] downloads
• Subscriptions based on our Big Deal expenditure - Usage
• Subscription based on our Big Deal expenditure - CPU
<[x]
• CPU of <£[x]
• No Subscription (Walk away)

15. GOOD VALUE
FOR MONEY
NO EXPENSIVE
UPGRADES
TRANSPARENT
&
SUSTAINABLE
PRICING
NO REMOVAL
OF TITLES
LONG TERM
DIGITAL
PRESERVATION
OPT OUT NOT
LINKED TO £
NO
BARRIERS
TO
GREEN
OA
NO
CAPS

16. A review of transitional agreements in the UK https://www.jisc.ac.uk/reports/a-review-of-transitional-agreements-in-the-uk
Beyond article-based charges working group: an update on progress https://theplosblog.plos.org/2024/04/beyond-article-
based-charges-working-group-an-update-on-progress/
End of big deals is a chance to build a better publishing system https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-views-
of-the-uk-2025-january-end-of-big-deals-is-a-chance-to-build-a-better-publishing-system/
Library sector finances 2025 https://www.sconul.ac.uk/News/View?g=5de9e48c-7233-4fb2-8bd2-576d24b4b243&t=
MIT Framework for Publisher Contracts https://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/publishing/framework/
Next generation Open Access https://www.jisc.ac.uk/next-generation-open-
access?utm_campaign=&utm_content=Big%20five%20%7C%20communication%20resources%20%7C%20January%2025&ut
m_medium=email&utm_source=adestra
Why are universities ending their Elsevier open access agreements
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2025/02/03/why-are-universities-ending-the-elsevier-open-access-agreements/

17. THANK YOU
FOR LISTENING