Academic journal costs

Waiting for an internal review by University of Wales Trinity St David of their handling of this request.

Dear University of Wales Trinity St David,

For the years 2017, 2018, and 2019, please publish the total amount paid to each of the following publishers for academic journals:

Wiley
Springer*
Elsevier
Taylor & Francis
Sage
Oxford University Press
Cambridge University Press
Nature Publishing Group*
Royal Society of Chemistry
Institute of Physics Publishing

I understand that your expenditure records may be held in academic financial years rather than calendar years. If so, I am happy for the response to be provided in the same format, with figures for 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19. (Although 2019 has not ended yet, my understanding is that payments for access to journals for 2019 are likely to have all been made by now.)

The figures should include payments made directly to the publishers as well as any payments made to subscription agents or intermediaries for the purchase of, and/or access to, the publishers' academic journals. They should also include payment for journal packages such as Jisc Collections agreements, as well as for individual journals. Please include VAT where possible, and indicate whether or not figures include VAT.

* Although Springer Nature is the parent company for these two publishers, my understanding is that Springer journals and Nature journals are still paid for separately, so I think it makes sense to regard these as two different publishers with different expenditure amounts.

Yours faithfully,

Stuart Lawson

Paul Osborne, University of Wales Trinity St David

4 Attachments

Dear Stuart,

 

Thank you for your freedom of information request received by this office
on 28^th September 2019. I will respond to your request as quickly as
possible and within the statutory timeframe.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Paul Osborne   BSocSc(Hons) LLM,
Solicitor                                                                                                            

Swyddog Diogelu Data   /  Data Protection Officer

Campws Busnes Abertawe SA1 1NE Cymru DU/ Swansea Business Campus, SA1 1NE,
Wales, UK

Llinell Uniongyrchol / Direct Line: 01792
481180                                               

e-bost / e-mail: [1][email address]

 

 

[2]UWTSD Logo

 

 

Trawsnewid Addysg . . . Trawsnewid Bywydau

Transforming Education . . . Transforming Lives

 

[3]Investors in
People[4]cid:image002.jpg@01D1367F.6C534CC0[5]http://www.uwtsd.ac.uk/media/uwtsd-websi...

 Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?
/ Cysidrwch yr amgylchedd - a oes wir angen argraffu'r ebost hwn?

 

 

References

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Paul Osborne, University of Wales Trinity St David

5 Attachments

 

Dear Stuart,

 

Thank you for your freedom of information request received by this office
on 30^th September 2019. I would refer you to the attached exemption
letter.

 

You may request a review of the information contained within this freedom
of information response from my colleague Lee Bartlett 
[1][email address]  If you remain dissatisfied following the
review you may appeal to the Information Commissioner at [2]ico.org.uk.
Alternatively, you may write to the ICO at:

 

Head Office

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a
national rate number

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Paul Osborne   BSocSc(Hons) LLM,
Solicitor                                                                                                            

Swyddog Diogelu Data   /  Data Protection Officer

Campws Busnes Abertawe SA1 1NE Cymru DU/ Swansea Business Campus, SA1 1NE,
Wales, UK

Llinell Uniongyrchol / Direct Line: 01792
481180                                               

e-bost / e-mail: [3][email address]

 

 

[4]UWTSD Logo

 

 

Trawsnewid Addysg . . . Trawsnewid Bywydau

Transforming Education . . . Transforming Lives

 

[5]Investors in
People[6]cid:image002.jpg@01D1367F.6C534CC0[7]http://www.uwtsd.ac.uk/media/uwtsd-websi...

 Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?
/ Cysidrwch yr amgylchedd - a oes wir angen argraffu'r ebost hwn?

 

 

References

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1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
3. mailto:[email address]

Paul Osborne, University of Wales Trinity St David

5 Attachments

 

Dear Stuart,

 

Thank you for your freedom of information request received by this office
on 30^th September 2019. I would refer you to the attached exemption
letter.

 

You may request a review of the information contained within this freedom
of information response from my colleague Lee Bartlett 
[1][email address]  If you remain dissatisfied following the
review you may appeal to the Information Commissioner at [2]ico.org.uk.
Alternatively, you may write to the ICO at:

 

Head Office

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a
national rate number

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Paul Osborne   BSocSc(Hons) LLM,
Solicitor                                                                                                            

Swyddog Diogelu Data   /  Data Protection Officer

Campws Busnes Abertawe SA1 1NE Cymru DU/ Swansea Business Campus, SA1 1NE,
Wales, UK

Llinell Uniongyrchol / Direct Line: 01792
481180                                               

e-bost / e-mail: [3][email address]

 

 

[4]UWTSD Logo

 

 

Trawsnewid Addysg . . . Trawsnewid Bywydau

Transforming Education . . . Transforming Lives

 

[5]Investors in
People[6]cid:image002.jpg@01D1367F.6C534CC0[7]http://www.uwtsd.ac.uk/media/uwtsd-websi...

 Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?
/ Cysidrwch yr amgylchedd - a oes wir angen argraffu'r ebost hwn?

 

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
3. mailto:[email address]

Dear University of Wales Trinity St David,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of University of Wales Trinity St David's handling of my FOI request 'Academic journal costs'.

I disagree with your reasoning and believe that you should release the information. I have sent the same request to all higher education institutions in the UK, and the majority have now responded to the request by releasing the data. This is publicly available at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3659970

As a reminder, you have already released expenditure figures for Elsevier in previous years, e.g. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a... and https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/e.... The full dataset for all institutions in previous years is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1186... and https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4542....

Since negotiations with for journal agreements usually occur on a sector-wide level through a single central negotiator – Jisc Collections – it is not in your institution’s interest for figures to remain secret. Indeed, full transparency of these figures can show your institution how much comparable institutions are paying, allowing you to understand whether you are receiving appropriate value from your payments. The current situation is almost complete transparency with regards to the amounts paid by UK institutions to most of the major journal publishers. This means that any secrecy is solely to the advantage of the publishers, not yourself.

Finally, I believe there is a high public interest in releasing the data, as evidenced by the high level of engagement with earlier data releases (https://figshare.altmetric.com/details/2...) and news articles about it (https://www.timeshighereducation.com/new...). It has directly informed UK government policy documents (https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...). The publishing sector is moving towards greater transparency, such as through the forthcoming Plan S requirements (https://www.coalition-s.org/principles-a...). To be accountable for the expenditure of public funds, and to align your practices with best practice across the sector, I urge you again to release the information.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a...

Yours faithfully,

Stuart Lawson

Paul Osborne, University of Wales Trinity St David

1 Attachment

Dear Stuart,

 

Thank you for your freedom of information review request in relation to
your request “academic journal costs” to which the University responded on
31^st October 2019. I have passed your paperwork to the University’s
internal reviewer and all correspondence in this matter will now come from
that office within the statutory timeframe under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Paul Osborne   BSocSc(Hons) LLM,
Solicitor                                                                                                            

Swyddog Diogelu Data   /  Data Protection Officer

Campws Busnes Abertawe SA1 1NE Cymru DU/ Swansea Business Campus, SA1 1NE,
Wales, UK

Llinell Uniongyrchol / Direct Line: 01792
481180                                               

e-bost / e-mail: [1][email address]

 

 

[2]cid:image006.jpg@01D59A46.FB421D60

 

 

 

 

 

References

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1. mailto:[email address]

Dear Paul,

Could I have an update on this request please?

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Lawson

Paul Osborne, University of Wales Trinity St David

Dear Stuart,
Thank you for your email and my apologies for the delay in your review
response. As you will understand the Covid 19 pandemic has fundamentally
changed the way the University works which has had a corresponding impact
upon response times for compliance requests and reviews, once again my
apologies for this. I will make relevant enquiries of the University's
reviewer today and ask for confirmation of a time for a response to your
review request.
Best wishes,
Paul Osborne
Swyddog Diogelu Data
Data Protection Officer
University of Wales Trinity Saint David

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Stuart Lawson <[FOI #607935 email]>
Sent: 15 May 2020 09:00
To: Paul Osborne <[email address]>
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information Review
 
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agor atodiadau oni bai eich bod yn adnabod cyfeiriad e-bost yr anfonwr ac
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WARNING: This email originated from outside University of Wales Trinity
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Dear Paul,

Could I have an update on this request please?

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Lawson

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