Scholarly Communication:
Library Subscriptions and Licenses

What happens when you sign that Publisher’s Standard Agreement so that your article may be published? After publishers gain ownership of your copyright they sell subscriptions to their publications, which your institution likely buys. However, the license that the publishers make your institution sign removes most uses covered by Fair Use and the TEACH Act.

It is usually only through the publisher's authorized gateway, usually purchased for a great deal of money, that your article may be accessed and distributed, thus affecting the scholarly community. As you may know, journal prices keep rising from year to year to the point where even big academic libraries, such as Harvard, had to cancel some essential subscriptions in order to balance its budget. Journal subscription prices affect not only library budgets, but contribute to disproportional fund distribution in universities and to tuition increases.