Preparing institutions for the transition: consortial cost-sharing models in transformative agreements in Austria

• Published in: Insights the UKSG journal Vol. 37; p. 19
• Main Authors: Pinhasi, Rita, Kromp, Brigitte
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ubiquity Press Ltd 10.12.2024; Ubiquity Press
• Subjects: Consortia; cost allocation; open access; Open access journals; Publishing industry; transformative agreements; University and college libraries; Austria
• ISSN: 2048-7754; 2048-7754
• DOI: 10.1629/uksg.671

Over the past ten years, the member institutions of the Austrian Academic Library Consortium (KEMÖ) have gradually opened up their researchers' publications to the world, one publisher at a time. By pulling their resources together, KEMÖ members have successfully converted their subscription-only agreements, for the most part, to read and publish deals in a cost-neutral manner, which include an article allocation comfortably covering the consortium's publishing needs. However, the new business models disrupted the pre-transition status quo: the existing distribution of costs, based predominantly on institutional subscription spending, differed from the emerging institutional-level output and potential associated costs. While moving to fully article-based pricing was felt premature, the consortium decided to explore ways to make the internal cost distribution more equitable. This article presents the various cost-sharing models reviewed and the process leading to the models ultimately introduced for several transformative agreements. Keywords: transformative agreements, cost allocation, consortia, open access