Pricing Implication of Publisher's Licensing Models on Sustainable E-resources Integration in Academic Libraries: A Review

The paper analyses relevant literature with a view to drawing attention to the challenges posed by publishers’ licenses on sustainable e-resources integration in academic libraries. To this end, two research objectives were formulated to guide the study in achieving its aims and a conceptual model developed for gaining insight into the fountainhead of the identified challenges. Accordingly, the study shows that: the proliferation of publishers’ business models, non-transferability of e-resources accesses/contents to a third party, the publishers’ ‘reserved right’ to draft e-resources agreements and to add or withdraw titles from packages without external input, dearth of academic titles in e-book packages etc. are due to publishers’ profit motive. Guided by this revelation, the study recommends the consolidation of publishers’ business models with a view to achieving uniformity of licenses, increasing affordability to ensure sustainability of e-resources integration in academic libraries.