From the Lawrence Journal World:
Lorraine Haricombe, KU’s dean of libraries, in February became the chairwoman of the steering committee for a group with representatives from academic libraries from around the world that pushes for better access to scholarly research, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Commission, or SPARC.
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KU spends about $3.5 million, largely from state funds, on journal subscriptions each year.
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Haricombe said that one problem is “predatory” publishers that charge huge sums of money for subscriptions and also charge researchers — for whom publishing journal articles is crucial for advancing their careers — as much as $3,000 apiece to make their articles openly accessible.
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KU will spend more than $1 million on subscriptions to journals by Elsevier this year, Haricombe said.