Upcoming Journal Cancellations

To manage significant budget reductions in 2020-2021, the UWM Libraries must reduce our collection expenses by $316,600. The Libraries identified titles with high cost relative to use and solicited campus input on potential cancellations beginning in May. We shared lists of individual journal and database titles as well as titles included in the Elsevier ScienceDirect Complete/Freedom Collection. This “Big Deal” package consists of 2,200 journals and captures about 20% of the total collection budget.

Despite many months of negotiations with Elsevier, the Libraries were unable to reach an agreement that met its financial needs. Therefore, we have decided not to renew our subscription to the ScienceDirect Complete/Freedom Collection when it expires on December 31, 2020. Instead, we will renew subscriptions to a much smaller set of Elsevier titles. Through these title-by-title subscriptions, as well as open access and backfiles, the UWM community will continue to have instant access to a significant number of Elsevier journals. We will provide access to other Elsevier journals through interlibrary loan (ILL).

In addition to these changes, the Libraries are cancelling subscriptions to some non-Elsevier titles with high cost relative to use, a trend of declining use, or alternative electronic access.

The UWM Libraries remain committed to providing UWM faculty and students with the resources they need for their research and studies. Faced with the reality of decreased budgets and collections costs that increase annually, the Libraries continually adjust the balance between subscriptions and alternative means of accessing scholarly content, such as ILL and open access.

For a complete list of retained and cancelled journals, please visit https://guides.library.uwm.edu/fy21cancellation.