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

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.

Figures (9)

• Figure 1: Aggregate Number of TAs by Year
• Figure 2: Aggregate Number and Volume of TAs of the 'Big 3' publishers
• Figure 3: Map of accumulated TA volumes by country. A higher color intensity implies a larger sum of annual TA publications.
• Figure 4: Relationship between Size and Starting Year of TAs. Coefficients based on the regression displays in eq. \ref{['eq1']}. Heteroskedasticity robust standard errors clustered on the publisher level. 95% confidence bands displayed.
• Figure 5: Aggregate Number and Total Volume of TAs by License Type, n = 1075