The components of the Spanish Board of Consortia and Purchasing Groups, CISUG, CBUA, BUCLE, Madroño, CSUC, UNIRIS, G9, BUVAL, REBIUN and CSIC,
in view of the 2023 renewals, join forces again with the intention of continuing to promote the transparency and cooperation with which we began to work at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. In order to continue with this task, it is crucial that the publishers and producers of scientific information and the institutions represented at this board continue to be coordinated to try to keep on giving support to our organizations and avoid that, despite the annual price increases, they have to consider canceling their subscriptions because they cannot afford the costs.

It was expected that by 2022 the economic situation would give a change that would imply the definitive end of the pandemic, something that ultimately did not happen. In 2023, the shadow of COVID-19 no longer seems so dark, but even so, the consequences have been so devastating that the budgets for scientific information of the institutions represented here have remained stagnant since 2021, whereby it is extremely hard to keep all subscriptions current.

Despite this, perhaps there is an opportunity to minimize such budgetary impact thanks to the great momentum of open access publications, especially since the scientific production accessible by subscription is proportionally less as the Open Access movement advances.

Thus, given the situation described, we declare that:

• Continuing with what we already stated in the previous declaration, the proposals for the renewals of 2023 and subsequent years must be adjusted to the budgets of the Spanish system of universities and research organizations and, therefore, be aligned with the aforementioned budget stagnation.
• The economic conditions offered must be the same for all the institutions represented.
• In order to maintain the spirit of cooperation and obligatory transparency of this Board, we will share the proposals of the suppliers avoiding accepting unequal conditions or conditions that are not applied to the same extent to all members.

We appeal with this statement to an effort on the part of publishers and providers to allow the renewal of current agreements to the greatest extent possible. In the event that the renewal proposals do not sufficiently meet the demands expressed, we will be forced to transfer them to the universities and research organizations for their assessment. If due to insufficient funds the offer is unaffordable, its cancellation will
be considered.

As we have been declaring for two years now, this letter is not a negotiating strategy, but rather a consequence of the critical situation that we continue to endure and on which we feel obliged to insist, so that, once again, it continues to constitute the only possible alternative in order to maintain each and every one of the resources that make up our digital libraries.

The statement signed by CISUG, CBUA, BUCLE, Madroño, CSUC, UNIRIS, G9, BUVAL, REBIUN and CSIC can be downloaded in Spanish or English version.

Pulse aquí para leer la versión en español.