5 Ways You Inadvertently Deplete Your Literature Acquisition Budget—and What to Do Instead

Many research-driven companies spend more than necessary on research and literature acquisition. Here are five common mistakes and how to fix them.

Mistake #1. Searching and ordering in different locations

Don't waste time searching for content across various search environments (e.g. PubMed, Google Scholar)—and then toggling back and forth to various other websites to order the full-text documents. Instead, use an automated document delivery service that lets you order—and immediately retrieve—any scientific article directly from your search results. No toggling required. 

Automated document delivery reduces the time it takes to find and order a journal article from an average 24 minutes down to just 60 seconds. 

Mistake #2. Making blind article purchases

The cost of individual article purchases adds up fast. Organizations that only purchase articles as a last resort can drastically reduce acquisition costs. Follow these steps to determine your lowest-cost (or no-cost!) option:

• Check your repository to see if you already have access (avoid duplicate orders) 
• Determine if you can get the article via an existing subscription or prepaid tokens
• See if there’s an open access version available
• Consider whether renting the article is a smarter choice 
• Only purchase the article if you've ruled out all the above

The steps above may sound tedious and time-consuming, but that's only if you do them manually. An automated document delivery solution with advanced filtering tools will run these checks for you.

Mistake #3. Overlooking valuable metrics

To maximize the return on your literature acquisition investments, you need to know how your teams are using content across your organization. The good news is that the same solution you implemented to fix Mistakes 1 and 2 above, will also help you here. Because when you automate document delivery, you can easily track your subscription and usage metrics.

You can then run analytics—based on your scientists’ true usage—to make informed decisions about which journals are being used enough to substantiate a subscription, and where it makes more sense to purchase articles individually.

Mistake #4. Expecting your teams to be legal experts

Copyright compliance is hard. But it's also essential for any research-driven organization to get right. Rather than expecting your scientists, researchers, and even information managers to decipher the fine print for every publisher agreement, you can save time and reduce risk by automating compliance.

A literature acquisition solution with embedded compliance features will ensure your content is delivered copyright compliant for your stated intended use.

Mistake #5. Manually reconciling article transactions

Performing monthly fee reconciliations manually is tedious and time consuming (e.g. sorting through all purchase receipts, creating expense reports, and paying all the various suppliers). On average, each transaction takes 15 minutes to process—adding up to a lot of wasted time each month.

Save time by using an enterprise-level document delivery solution that bundles all transactions, across all vendors, into a single monthly invoice. You’ll only have to make a single payment each month, with all transactions automatically reconciled and accounted for. 

Want more time- and cost-saving tips? Click here to watch our on-demand webinar: Time = Money! Are budget constraints pressuring your research program?