Dear serials listers:

I have a question which I am sure someone out there has the answer to.
Has anyone done a study of how stable the lists of  journals that allow
full text access through our leasing arrangements with databases are?
Do these full text titles continue to come and go, or is there a stable
core that remains available making up the bulk of the offerings provided
by these databases?

It is common knowledge that we only lease access to these titles, we
don't actually own them and there have been cases where publishers have
discontinued full text access to journal titles (Sage publishers is
probably the most notable in recent memory).  But I have never seen a
study documenting how often full journals are pulled from databases,
discontinuing full text access to these publications.

 My sense is that once a journal is included in a database's collection
of full text titles it generally stays there and that the lists of full
text journals available through various databases are much more stable
than are given credit for.  If anything, I would think these lists tend
to expand rather than shrink in terms of title coverage.   I have yet to
see or hear of any real documentation regarding this.  Does anyone know
of any recent studies on this?

Mark