Methodology
The SPARC COVID-Impact survey instrument was reviewed by members of SPARC’s Journal Negotiation Community of Practice and implemented via the Alchemer platform (formerly SurveyGizmo). The survey opened on January 19 and closed on February 26, 2021.
The data was reviewed and cleaned to remove duplicate responses from institutions. The original dataset included 125 “complete” responses, as defined by the survey platform. Of these, three were entirely blank and five were duplicate responses from institutions, so were deleted. Where more than one respondent from an institution completed the survey, the senior administrator response was kept.
Of 117 complete responses, only 115 reached and responded to question 30, with country demographics. Earlier questions will have higher responses in the aggregate The survey platform considered any response not “submitted” to be partial; the survey team also reviewed the partial responses, deduped responses where a complete response had already been submitted by that institution, and determined that another 20 responses—those having completed at least the first budget questions—would be included in the analysis.
The study includes some subgroup analysis, by Country and by Institution Type. Because these questions were found later in the survey, not all respondents offered answers here. For that reason, the total number of respondents for some questions adds up to greater than the total of the Country-specific sub groups.
The subgroup analyses included: Country (US, 99; Canada, 11; and Australia, 5). In addition, of the 99 US-based complete responses, we also examined subgroups by institution type:
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US, Doctoral institutions
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US, Non-Doctoral institutions, where the highest degree conferred is an Associate’s, Bachelor’s, or Master’s Degree
Within the group of US-based doctoral institutions, we examined responses of public versus private institutions.
Five interviews were conducted with librarians or teams at libraries at different types of institutions, including public and private research universities, and a liberal arts college. Interviewees were chosen based on open-text responses which suggested they could help provide further detail about specific tactics taken, whether re-negotiating a contract, unbundling a big deal, or undertaking in-house digitization. The interviews are included throughout the report to add further context to survey findings, where appropriate.
