Digital archival collections group purchasing scheme

About the scheme

When budgets are stretched, it's hard to buy primary source materials that complement libraries' journal and book resources to provide a richer experience for users.

The digital archival collections group purchasing scheme makes primary source materials and archives more affordable to higher education (HE). Participating publishers may also exercise the option to offer products to alternative HE providers. By digital archival collections, we mean static databases of texts, images, audio-visual material and data which libraries typically buy as one-off purchases (current subscriptions to journals and book collections are out of scope).

Group purchasing is a community-centred scheme based on the simple market principle: the more products that are purchased, the lower the price. So, the more products bought per publisher by any institution over the course of an academic year, the lower the price for those participating, based on pre-set discount triggers.

Benefits of the scheme

• Substantial savings - members have saved over £0.8m to date
• Members of the scheme collectively help each other drive down the cost by leveraging the power of group purchasing
• A more efficient, coordinated and transparent approach to the acquisition of digital archival collections
• All titles are a one-off purchase with no recurrent platform/hosting fee
• Automatic minimum 20% discount on all products offered through the scheme
• No need to negotiate prices – the fees have been Jisc banded to allow all UK HE, and optional alternative HE providers, to participate
• Jisc model licence provides a consistent and standard approach to procuring and licensing collections from multiple publishers

Who is this scheme for?

The scheme is primarily open to all UK higher education members; and optionally on a publisher-by-publisher basis to alternative HE providers, as defined in the Jisc banding information.

Available collections

Each participating publisher can offer up to 20 products.( You can view all products and pricing on licence subscriptions manager.)

• Academic Rights Press
• Brill
• British Online Archives (Microform)
• De Gruyter
• East View
• Irish Newspaper Archives
• JSTOR
• Wiley

All products offered are licensed using the Jisc model licence. Orders must be placed via licence subscriptions manager to confirm the order, with the final cumulative discount determined at the end of the financial year (July).

As of 1 May 2020, HMRC has introduced VAT zero rating for e-books, e-newspapers, e-magazines and academic e-journals. In accordance with these regulations, VAT for digital archival collections offered under the group purchasing scheme will be charged at either zero rate or 20%, depending on the tax status of that collection. As a member, if you log into licence subscriptions manager you can view pricing and VAT status on the pricing spreadsheet for each publisher.

For a complete overview of the scope and features of the group purchasing scheme please refer to the digital archival collections group purchasing scheme buyer's guide 2021-2022 (pdf).

Find out more

For more information contact Karen Colbron, product manager, Jisc (karen.colbron@jisc.ac.uk).