Trapped in Transformative Agreements? A Multifaceted Analysis of >1,000 Contracts

TL;DR

This paper analyzes over 1,000 transformative agreements between publishers and research institutions, revealing that academia is largely stuck in hybrid publishing models, which favor legacy publishers and hinder open access progress.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive, data-driven analysis of transformative agreements using a unique dataset, highlighting the market power of legacy publishers and barriers to open access.

Findings

Research institutions are predominantly in hybrid agreements.

Legacy publishers hold substantial market power.

The system increases costs and entry barriers for open access.

Abstract

Transformative agreements between academic publishers and research institutions are ubiquitous. The 'Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges' (ESAC) Initiative lists more than 1,000 contracts in its database. We make use of this unique dataset by web-scraping the details of every contract to substantially expand the overview spreadsheet provided by the ESAC Initiative. Based on that hitherto unused data source, we combine qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct an in-depth analysis of the contract characteristics and the TA landscape. Our analysis demonstrates that research institutions seem to be 'trapped' in transformative agreements. Instead of being a bridge towards a fully Open Access world, academia is stuck in the hybrid system. This endows the legacy (non-Open Access) publishing houses with substantial market power. It raises entry barriers, lowers competition, and increases costs for libraries and universities.