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George Mason University Infoguides | University Libraries
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Scholarly Resources: Acquisitions & Cancellations

Overview of the Libraries' collections with updates and cancellation lists.

FY25 Cancellation Lists

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.  

A table summarizing resource cancellations confirmed for FY25.

Resource 

Access notes 

Alternative resources 

ProQuest Statistical Insight 

Access ends 12/31/2024 

SAGE Data 

Statista 

Mergent Intellect 

Access ends 09/30/2024 

Mergent First Research Reports 

Other industry & market research databases 

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 

Foundation Directory 

Guidestar Pro 

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

FY24 Cancellation Lists

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.

Past Cancellations

FY2023 Cancellations

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