Academic journal costs

The request was successful.

Dear University of Leeds,

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.

I am aware of the previous request sent by S. Goodman in April 2018 (https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a...), so do not require the figures for 2017 for the publishers Elsevier, Wiley, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Sage.

* 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

Freedom of Information, University of Leeds

Dear Mr Lawson

I can confirm receipt of the request below, dated 22 September 2019. 

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and will be answered within twenty working days.  As such, you should expect to hear from the University in response by 21 October 2019, if, in the meantime, you have any queries about the request, please don’t hesitate to contact me.   

Kind regards

Tracey Crombie
PA to the Legal Adviser
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
Tel:  0113 343 4078 (NB 8am-4pm)
Fax:  0113 343 3925

This communication is intended solely for the addressee, is strictly confidential and may also be legally privileged.  If you are not the addressee please do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any attachments.  Instead, please contact Tracey Crombie on the above telephone number.

Any liability (in negligence or otherwise) arising from any third party acting, or refraining from acting, on any information contained in this email is excluded.

It is the responsibility of the receiver of this email to ensure that any onward transmission or use of this email (including attachments) will not adversely affect their systems or data contained on their systems.  Receivers are advised to carry out virus checks.  The University of Leeds accepts no responsibility with regard to the communication or other use of this email.

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Tracey Crombie,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Lawson

Further to your FOI request, please find attached a spreadsheet of expenditure excluding VAT.

I hope this is helpful in resolving your query. If you have any questions about this email, however, please don't hesitate to contact me.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision, you should write to or email directly Mr D Wardle, Deputy Secretary, The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT ([email address]). You should do so within 40 working days of receiving the University’s response to your request. Further information about how the University manages Freedom of Information requests and about our complaints procedure is also available on our website (www.leeds.ac.uk).

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.  Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the review/complaints procedure provided by the University.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:  Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Best wishes,

Tracey Crombie
PA to the Legal Adviser
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
Tel:  0113 343 4078 (NB 8am-4pm)
Fax:  0113 343 3925

This communication is intended solely for the addressee, is strictly confidential and may also be legally privileged.  If you are not the addressee please do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any attachments.  Instead, please contact Tracey Crombie on the above telephone number.

Any liability (in negligence or otherwise) arising from any third party acting, or refraining from acting, on any information contained in this email is excluded.

It is the responsibility of the receiver of this email to ensure that any onward transmission or use of this email (including attachments) will not adversely affect their systems or data contained on their systems.  Receivers are advised to carry out virus checks.  The University of Leeds accepts no responsibility with regard to the communication or other use of this email.

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Tracey Crombie,

1 Attachment

  • This attachment has been hidden. There are various reasons why we might have done this, sorry we can't be more specific here. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Dear Mr Lawson

Further to my email below, unfortunately, I have been informed that the information previously supplied was incorrect. Please see attached the correct amounts spent on academic journals.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Kind regards

Tracey Crombie
PA to the Legal Adviser
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
Tel:  0113 343 4078 (NB 8am-4pm)
Fax:  0113 343 3925

This communication is intended solely for the addressee, is strictly confidential and may also be legally privileged.  If you are not the addressee please do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any attachments.  Instead, please contact Tracey Crombie on the above telephone number.

Any liability (in negligence or otherwise) arising from any third party acting, or refraining from acting, on any information contained in this email is excluded.

It is the responsibility of the receiver of this email to ensure that any onward transmission or use of this email (including attachments) will not adversely affect their systems or data contained on their systems.  Receivers are advised to carry out virus checks.  The University of Leeds accepts no responsibility with regard to the communication or other use of this email.

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Dear Tracey,

Thanks very much for providing the updated information.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Lawson

Dear Tracey,

Thanks again for providing this data. For your information, the collated data from all institutions is available here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3659970

I note figures for expenditure with Elsevier were provided in the original spreadsheet you sent, but not in the updated one. So I'm still missing Elsevier expenditure figures for 2018 and 2019 (a figure for 2017 was provided for S. Goodman's previous request). If you could provide these figures, that would be appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Lawson