Memorial University's plan to cancel journal subscriptions could tarnish reputation, says prof

Conducting research at Memorial University may soon become a lot more difficult as the university plans to cancel its subscriptions to thousands of academic journals. 

The school recently released a list of journals on the cancellation list. 

A statement from the university revealed more details about the cancellations. The school is considering cuts to five per cent of its 80,000 subscriptions.

"Five per cent of these journals, which are included in publisher packages that are currently up for multi-year renewal, are being considered for possible cancellation," the statement reads. "Of that five per cent, many will be available through alternate journal packages." 

The statement continues: "Like other academic libraries across the country, 85 per cent of Memorial Libraries' resources are purchased in U.S. dollars. A weak Canadian dollar and continuing price increases have had an increasingly substantial impact on the libraries' buying power." 

• Related: Memorial University's full statement

Scott Matthews, a professor in the department of political science, is worried that these cuts could have a negative effect on the university's reputation. Here's part of his conversation with As it Happens co-host Carol Off.

CO: What did you think when you first learned that your university may be ending thousands of journal subscriptions?

SM: Shock. I was kind of in a state of disbelief. We knew that there was some prospects of cuts to our journal subscriptions. In this environment, no one is too surprised by that. But, the shock was really the number of high quality and really important journals that are on this list and across fields. I've been in close touch with friends in nine or 10 different departments in both the faculty of arts and the faculty of science and got the same reaction.

The list that we got certainly doesn't suggest that our input had much impact.- Scott Matthews, Political science professor at Memorial University 

CO: A release from the Memorial University library says that they consulted and did analysis of what journals were being used. They had just under 500 responses, including 334 faculty members or instructors. Is this the first you heard of these cuts, when you saw this list?

SM: I filled out the survey as a number of my colleagues did. We identified, as part of that survey, the journals we thought were very important to our research … The list that we got certainly doesn't suggest that our input had much impact. The journals I said were absolutely crucial, many of them, I'll either have no access to or some kind of sub-standard access.

We are threatening a very hard earned reputation as a serious centre of research and training at both graduate and undergraduate levels.- Scott Matthews, Political science professor at Memorial University 

CO: Memorial says they are facing, not just shortened resources, but a weak Canadian dollar. [Memorial is buying] a large number of these publications from the United States and abroad. The price of them has become much higher. What should the university do?

SM: I certainly accept that the price is going up. It's a scandal in academic publishing how much these things cost and how much textbooks cost. That's a real problem. But, it's not a problem that Memorial can solve on its own. We need to maintain access to this really critical research resource in order to do everything. Here at Memorial, one of our priorities over the next five years is to increase our graduate enrolment by about 1,000 students … There's no way we can do that if we have deficient, second-rate, access to the stream of new research in all of these fields.  

CO: Do you think this will hurt the reputation of Memorial University?

SM: Absolutely. Unfortunately, it's a terrible way to get into the news. We are threatening a very hard-earned reputation as a serious centre of research and training at both graduate and undergraduate levels. I think this is going to absolutely influence the kind of decisions that students make.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

To hear the full interview please select the Listen audio link above.