Patron Driven Acquisition of

Journal Articles from

ReadCube Access

Phill Jones

VP Business Development, Labtiva

Phill.Jones@readcube.com

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Serial Expenditures in ARL Libraries (n=107)

Serial (Unit cost)

Serial Expenditure

Serials Purchased

Linear (Serial Expenditure)

An Underlying Problem• Scholarly output

doubles every 20 years

• In line with growth in knowledge workers

• At the same time, library funding is falling

• Library budgets under increasing pressure

Why ReadCube Access?

• Earlier this year, ReadCube conducted a user survey on journal access

• All researchers reported seeing a paywall in the last 12 months

• Average = 2.8 times per month

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Survey of ‘Coping Responses’

• The Pie Chart shows all responses to

paywall events

• Respondents only report using PPV on

3.6% of occasions

• Only 11% ever purchase through PPV*

• 25% of events result in an ILL request

• Users use file sharing 40% of the time

• Data shows an alarming trend toward

disintermediation of libraries

* Results consistent with Access to

Scholarly content: Gaps and

Barriers, JiSC/RiN Dec-2011

The Hunt for a Sustainable Model

Q: Is Open Access

the solution?

A: Partially

• Transitional period requires extra

funding

• Cost for UK alone = £38m /year

• The UK is setting up a £10m

fund to offset these costs

http://repository.jisc.ac.uk/610/

Diversity in Access Models

• Diversity in levels of funding and access in both readership and authorship

• Usage rates vary by field and article type

Open Access

Publishers

Subscription Access

Inter-Library Loan

Patron Driven

Acquisition

Repositories

Patron Driven Acquisition in a

Multi-Access Landscape

• Provide instant access to more content without paying for what your patrons aren’t using

• Helps maintain engagement with patrons– The trend towards ‘back-channeling’ of content makes

the library less visible and makes it harder to justify budget

• Measure demand and inform collection decisions

• Not all titles will make sense to purchase this way– Some high impact titles have CPD’s in the <$1

– PDA gives supplementary access to a large range of titles

– Similar role to ILL but at a lower cost

ReadCube Web Reader: More than Just

a PDF viewer

• Clickable references• Author search• Figure viewer• Supplementary material• Editor’s summaries• Related content• Altmetrics• Snippets from citing

articles• Citation export• Social features

In the Future• Data sets• Links to product pages

for materials used

ReadCube Desktop App

Automated discovery tools enable users to find RELEVANT content quickly

An intuitive interface for the entire lifecylceof an article

Removing the Barriers to

Supplementary AccessPatron Driven Acquisition can reverse the trend

of library disintermediation

• Easy to use

• Instant delivery

• ‘Free’ to the user

• Library creates pre-paid fund

• Seamless integration into existing discovery pathways

Trial At The University Of Utah

• Objective– Develop a program that would offer reduced cost access to

scientific articles on a PDA basis

– Assess whether researchers prefer ReadCube access to ILL

• Method– ReadCube Access was built into our reference management

software

– Reduced prices were offered in return for certain usage restrictions

– Promotion was limited to approx. 1,090 faculty and post-doctoral fellows (~25% of campus)

– Rate of purchases compared to the average rate of ILL requests

• Results– Number of ReadCube Access purchases ~50% higher than

expected when compared to ILL

Trial Conclusion

‘ReadCube Access represents good value

for money and a sustainable model’

-Rick Anderson, Interim Dean, Marriot Library, Utah

Lessons and User Feedback

1. Users appreciate the immediacy and ease of ReadCube Access

2. Fears of abuse of the system haven’t been borne out

3. A web based solution is important for people who cannot install software on their lab or office computers

4. A client based solution is needed for those sensitive to needing to feel like they ‘permanently acquired’ the content

Making ReadCube Access

Available in the Browser

• IP address is used to identify users from participating institutions

• The library patron is redirected to the Web Reader

• Transaction can then be completed within the browser

• Web Reader and Desktop purchases automatically sync

Appropriate Copy Problem• In addition to the publisher’s site, a given article may be available from an

aggregator, repository, or other location

• Not all users have access to a given article in the same location

• Knowledgebases have 20-40% error rates, particularly high for aggregators

• Users often struggle to find content that they have rights to access

More to follow…

A New Approach to the Appropriate

Copy Problem

• ReadCube tests for access to the article at

multiple locations in the background

• Currently supported:

Price Structure and Comparison

with Nature AOD

Accessible for… Open in any PDF viewer

Printable Price

Rental 48 Hrs No No $3.99

Cloud Purchase Indefinitely No Yes $9.99

NPG AoD Indefinitely Yes Yes Starting at $10

• ReadCube Access offers a lower cost single article solution

– There is a flat-rate SCELC member discount of 5%

• Articles purchased in ReadCube Access have usage restrictions

– Articles can be downloaded to the user’s desktop but cannot be opened in any other software

– Optional rental tier, which becomes inaccessible after 48Hrs and cannot be printed

• A feature comparison with NPG AoD is shown below

Developments and Plans

• Recently implemented enhanced PDF on Wiley

Online Library

• We are in talks with several major publishers to

expand the service

• Long term goals:

– Cross-publisher PDA

platform

– Robust solution to

appropriate copy problem

– Accelerate academic

progress by making patrons’

lives easier

Contact

phill.jones@readcube.com

Free ReadCube download:

www.readcube.com