Faculty researchers and authors are paid by the university to create the scholarship and research that they give away FOR FREE to scholarly publishers.
University libraries are then forced by publishers with very high-profit margins (btw 20-40%) to pay exorbitant prices to purchase access to the intellectual property that their own faculty created. **This purchased access is frequently not permanent or consistent.
The cost of scholarly publications is (and has been) rising at rates that are several times higher than inflation.
Over the last decade, purchasing journals have shifted from subscriptions to purchasing access. which consumes nearly 80% of libraries' yearly spending. Significant price increases in journals every year decrease the purchasing power of libraries overall which negatively impact the overall (limited) acquisition budget.
Publishers kept increases relatively flat during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic but prices are again expected to rise by 4-5%.
