DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.1186832.v16
title: Journal subscription costs - FOIs to UK universities

description: This dataset contains the amount of money paid by UK higher education institutions to seven major publishers (Elsevier, Wiley, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Sage, Oxford University Press, and Cambridge University Press) for academic journals from 2010-14. The data was obtained by sending FOI requests to each institution through the website whatdotheyknow.com. It now represents nearly £400m of expenditure. These are seven of the largest academic publishers but do not represent the total spend of these institutions on academic journals. Please see the F1000 data note (http://f1000research.com/articles/3-274/v2) for a full description of the data collection process. <strong>UPDATE 08/10/2014</strong>: Added figures for 13 more institutions. <strong>UPDATE 22/10/2014</strong>: Added figures for subscriptions to Elsevier journals. Also includes additional figures for other publishers for 16 institutions. <strong>UPDATE 24/10/2014</strong>: Added figures for subscriptions to Elsevier journals for 13 more institutions. <strong>UPDATE 27/10/2014</strong>: Added figures for subscriptions to Elsevier journals for 5 more institutions. <strong>UPDATE 29/10/2014</strong>: Added figures for subscriptions to Elsevier journals for 25 more institutions. <strong>UPDATE 5/11/2014</strong>: Added figures for subscriptions to Elsevier journals for 14 more institutions. <strong>UPDATE 25/11/2014</strong>: Added figures for Wiley, Springer, and OUP for 20 Russell Group institutions from Michelle Brook's FOI data (http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1250073) as well as further figures for around 20 other institutions. <strong>UPDATE 03/12/2014</strong>: Added figures for subscriptions to various publishers for 13 institutions. <strong>UPDATE 09/12/2014</strong>: Added figures for subscriptions to various publishers for 15 institutions. <strong>UPDATE 23/12/2014</strong>: Added figures for subscriptions to various publishers for 12 institutions. <strong>Note on the data 16/01/2015</strong>: It has been brought to my attention that the way I have added VAT to some figures may not be 100% accurate. I have added VAT to those figures for which it was not provided (a minority), but since VAT is only applied to electronic and not print publications in the UK, the figures I have added may not be completely accurate. Electronic subscriptions make up the majority of journal expenditure now but not all of it. Please bear this is mind when directly comparing different institutions' figures. I will see revisit the data at some point to see if I can rectify the problem. <strong>UPDATE 22/01/2015</strong>: Added figures for subscriptions to various publishers for 16 institutions. <strong>UPDATE 20/03/2015</strong>: Added figures for subscriptions to various publishers for 16 institutions. I have also removed the VAT (17.5% in 2010, 20% in 2011-14) which I had previously added to those figures which excluded VAT. This is to address the issue raised above - in the UK, VAT is only charged on electronic publications and not print. Since I don't know which proportion of the expenditure is on print and which is on electronic, I have decided not to add VAT. This may not make the figures more accurate but at least I can be sure that I am not inflating them. The total is now around £5m lower than before.