Big Deal cancellations and scholarly publishing: Insights from faculty and graduate student interviews

TL;DR

This study explores faculty and graduate students' perspectives on Big Deal cancellations in scholarly publishing, emphasizing collaborative decision-making and providing insights to improve cancellation strategies amidst rising costs.

Contribution

It offers new insights into the experiences of faculty and students during Big Deal cancellations, highlighting the collaborative nature of the process.

Findings

Cancellations are viewed as collaborative information exchanges.

Faculty and students experience significant impacts on access and publishing.

Understanding lived experiences can improve cancellation approaches.

Abstract

Big Deal cancellations are increasingly undertaken by academic librarians faced with rising subscription costs and shrinking collections budgets. While past research has focused on librarians' decision-making processes and communication strategies, this study aims to understand the perspectives and experiences of faculty and graduate students with Big Deal cancellations through interviews at three medium-sized Canadian institutions. It considers cancellations as a collaborative process of information exchange, rather than a top-down process. This study's findings can inform how and why cancellation projects can be undertaken with enhanced understandings of their lived realities of Big Deals and the current state of scholarly publishing. This study has been accepted by College and Research Libraries and will be published in July 2026.