RLUK have instructed their negotiators JISC collections to secure for them  a reduction of 15% on what they  currently pay to the two biggest publishers, Elsevier and Wiley Blackwell,  when the  licences are renewed in January 2012. If JISC Collections fail to achieve this RLUK members in HE libraries will refuse to sign up to the deal. Instead they will find other ways of supplying the material their researchers need.  RLUK is already drawing up contingency plans accordingly

This is a high risk strategy but there is apparently no alternative. Recent appeals to the publishers to mitigate their prices have fallen on deaf ears. Now reluctantly, but with the support of the Russell group VCs, RLUK will play hardball. To do other would compromise the future of UK research.

For more go to http://www.rluk.ac.uk/content/rluk-calls-journal-pricing-restraint or contact Debby at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it