Springer Journals

Overview

The Springer journal package is one of the largest journal packages USF Libraries currently subscribes to, boasting 1,569 titles. The primary focus of its content lies in the natural science, engineering, and medical fields, but it does include humanities, business, and education titles as well. This package grants the Libraries access to content published from 1997 to present, where available. USF has perpetual access to Springer journal titles for which we had a subscription or that have been a part of the database model since 2013.

The term “perpetual access” means that ”USF Libraries acquired the right to permanently provide access to the electronic resource. The title will never be withdrawn” from the Libraries’ catalog and access to that material will not be cancelled for the materials acquired during the subscription period. – See Glossary of Textbook Affordability Terms, USF Textbook Affordability Project

USF Libraries purchased Springer journal backfiles in 2012 with end-of-year funds, but we have not had the funding to fill in newly published backfiles from Springer since that time. The USF Libraries own the purchased backfile content up through the 1996 volumes.

History

USF Libraries first subscribed to Springer titles by subscribing to the “SpringerLink” journals package through the SOLINET consortium as far back as 2000. This subscription moved to a statewide deal sometime between 2000 and 2006. During that time, USF Libraries maintained perpetual access subscriptions through Springer, with a large group of titles included through an additional access fee. However, these additional “access only” titles do not have perpetual access. In 2013, Springer Journals moved to a database model, providing USF Libraries with perpetual access to all titles included in the package for each year that we subscribe.

Over time, some titles have been bought from or sold to other publishers, changing the composition of our subscription base. Additionally, we were sometimes permitted to “swap” subscriptions within the package to gain perpetual rights for titles with high use, thus letting less-used titles fall into the access model.  As journal ownership changes hands among various publishers, existing perpetual access agreements are not universally honored, and some titles may lapse absent aggressive tracking and legal enforcement efforts beyond the capacity of academic libraries.

Package Breakdown

Subject Areas