In Spring and Summer 2024, the Libraries prepared for Phase 2 of a cost reduction strategy designed to navigate the university-wide, two-year budget cuts. Phase 2 focused on (a) databases with overlapping content and functionality, and (b) large journal packages. After analyzing price and usage statistics and considering all faculty input received, we have decided to move forward with a small number of database cancellations and journal package restructurings. The latter are still under negotiation and will be announced in Fall 2024. Any journals unsubscribed through these negotiations will be made available via an expedited PDF request service, which usually delivers articles in less than 10 seconds.
As of August 2024, the Libraries have confirmed the following online subscription cancellations for Fiscal Year 2025.
Resource |
Access notes |
Alternative resources |
---|---|---|
ProQuest Statistical Insight |
Access ends 12/31/2024 |
|
Mergent Intellect |
Access ends 09/30/2024 |
|
Encyclopedia of Astronomy & Astrophysics |
Access ends 3/1/2025 |
Subject-specific reference works in Oxford Reference Online and CRC PhysicsNetBase |
Encyclopedia of Associations |
Prior years’ content will be retained |
Association websites |
National Faculty Directory |
Prior years’ content will be retained |
To find faculty working on related research, try OpenAlex.org |
Additional cancellations and cost reductions are still under negotiation and will be announced as terms are finalized. Throughout the year, further cancellations may also be necessary where vendors require unacceptable annual price increases or will not agree to the license terms Mason requires as a public research university. Once all cost savings are finalized, we will share the distribution of cancellations by subject area.
We are grateful to the many faculty members who completed our surveys, participated in our town halls, and attended other presentations. Many thanks, too, to the academic units and other groups who invited library representatives to speak at their meetings. We carefully considered all your comments and we are in the process of reaching out to individual faculty members who we know will be impacted by specific cancellations.
If you have questions about alternative resources available to you post-cancellation, please reach out to your subject librarian.
In Fall 2023, the Libraries completed Phase 1 of our strategy for meeting FY24-FY25 cost reduction targets. Phase 1 focused on routine curation, that is, canceling subscriptions with low return on investment based on a variety of factors, such as minimal usage, misalignment with current research and teaching needs, and availability of identical or similar content via more cost-effective channels. As part of this curation, we are also ending any print subscriptions for which we have robust online access, as many universities have done since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Finally, the lists below also include resources cancelled due to problematic changes in the terms of electronic resource license agreements.
The subscription cancellations identified in Phase 1 take effect on or around January 1, 2024.
These cancellation lists are viewable by anyone in George Mason University's Microsoft 365 environment.
In Fiscal Year 2023, the Libraries' budget was flat. As our subscription costs inflate by 2-10% per year, a flat budget reduces our buying power by several hundred thousand dollars. Subscription cancellations made in FY23 fell within the scope of our routine curation practices, with resources cancelled based on extremely low usage, availability of robust equivalents to the cancelled resource, extremely high price increases (>10%), and/or problematic changes to license terms.
FY 2023 online resource cancellations
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