Containing the cost of scholarly literature access is a critical component of almost every research-driven organization—from big pharmaceutical corporations to startup biotech companies to research universities. Librarians and information managers work hard to find the right balance between subscribing to a certain number of scholarly journals (great to have, but expensive), sourcing open access content (free, but selection is limited), and purchasing articles individually (unlimited selection, but acquisition costs can add up quickly). Publisher tokens offer yet another access option.
Publisher tokens, like individual article purchases, allow users to access single articles to which they don't have access via a subscription. Rather than paying by credit card when ordering, however, administrators purchase bundles (or packages) of publisher tokens ahead of time, which can then be used—on an as-needed basis—to download a certain number of individual journal articles.
Because token bundles are essentially bulk orders paid in advance, they are typically sold at discounted rates. The bigger the bundle, the lower the per-token cost.
If an organization sources scholarly articles from a particular publisher fairly often, but not often enough to justify an annual journal subscription, prepaid publisher tokens can be a cost-effective access option.
But there's a catch! Most tokens have an expiration date. That is, if they are not used within the designated period of time, they become invalid—and the money spent goes to waste.
When you use Article Galaxy for document delivery, you don't have to worry about paying for an article to which you already have access. Before you ever pay for a journal article, our advanced filters will automatically check to see if you have access via a prepaid token (it also checks for access via your journal subscriptions, your organization's PDF library, and open access).
To make prepaid publisher token access even more seamless, the Article Galaxy enterprise solution offers Automated PDF Delivery as an optional add-on feature, When a user finds an article they want, they can immediately request the full-text download right from the browser. Because the add-on lets Article Galaxy source PDFs directly from an organization's subscriptions and/or token packages, it solves the problem of end-user authentication to subscription/token content—saving time for researchers and administrators alike.
When deciding whether to purchase tokens from a particular publisher, administrators should take a close look at their usage analytics to make sure they buy the right size bundle. Article Galaxy document delivery tracks usage data, which organizations can use in determining how to balance their acquisition methods in the most cost-effective way.
To learn more about how we can help you get the most from your literature acquisition spend, contact an Article Galaxy expert today.