EBSCO’s 2014 Serials Price Projections are based on surveys of publishers and analysis of historical data. The latest report estimates that the average price increase for 2014 will be 6-8%.
The findings suggest that the big issues currently being debated by librarians (open access, hybrid OA journals, Big Deal etc) are not yet having an impact on publishers’ pricing strategies or business models. This, however, is likely to change. Librarians should assume pricing models will evolve and that renewal time will continue to call for difficult decisions, even as the economic climate begins to improve.
Smaller publishers will continue to feel the squeeze, driving the consolidation of the STM publishing houses towards the larger publishers – which will continue to reduce librarians’ bargaining power.
You can download the free report here.