Seeking Open Access Deal, 60 German Academic Institutions Ditch All Subscriptions With Elsevier
from the united-we-stand dept
In the struggle to provide open access to academic research, one company name keeps cropping up as a problem: Elsevier. Techdirt has written numerous stories about efforts to rein in the considerable — and vastly profitable — power that Elsevier wields in the world of academic publishing. These include boycotts of various kinds, mass resignations of journal editors, as well as access to millions of publicly-funded papers in ways that bypass Elsevier altogether.
Alongside these grassroots actions, some universities and research institutes have tried taking a different approach. They are making common cause by banding together in order to strengthen their negotiating hand with the global publishing giant. The aim is to get a better deal from Elsevier, particularly in terms of providing open access to papers. Last year, a group of universities in the Netherlands used this strategy with some success, as Science reports:
A standoff between Dutch universities and publishing giant Elsevier is finally over. After more than a year of negotiations — and a threat to boycott Elsevier’s 2500 journals — a deal has been struck: For no additional charge beyond subscription fees, 30% of research published by Dutch researchers in Elsevier journals will be open access by 2018.
The Science article points out that this win had limited impact, because only about 2% of all academic papers are produced by Dutch authors. That makes the following move by the much larger German academic community of considerable importance:
The DEAL project, headed by HRK (German Rectors’ Conference) President Prof Hippler, is negotiating a nationwide license agreement for the entire electronic Elsevier journal portfolio with Elsevier. Its objective is to significantly improve the status quo regarding the provision of and access to content (Open Access) as well as pricing. It aims at relieving the institutions’ acquisition budgets and at improving access to scientific literature in a broad and sustainable way.
In order to improve their negotiating power, about 60 major German research institutions including Göttingen University cancelled their contracts with Elsevier as early as October 2016. Others have announced to follow this example.
According to the post, Elsevier made its first offer to the group, but it was considered inadequate, and so the German institutions have ditched all their subscriptions with the publisher. As they say:
All participants in this process are aware of the imminent effects this has on research and teaching. However, they share the firm conviction that, for the present, the pressure built up by the joint action of many research institutions is the only way to to reach an outcome advantageous for the German scientific community.
Let’s hope they are able to preserve their united front in order to win open access to the articles their researchers publish. After all, a win for the DEAL project is also a win for the rest of us.
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Filed Under: germany, open access, publishing
Companies: elsevier
Comments on “Seeking Open Access Deal, 60 German Academic Institutions Ditch All Subscriptions With Elsevier”
so-o-o-o...
…they are still 70% screwed ? ? ?
i *guess* that is an improvement; personally, i would have gone for 0% ass raping without consent, but maybe that’s just me…
That’s good. We should be opening up intellectual property as a whole. The benefits of having a totally free system outweigh any perceived incentives. We haven’t reached the progress we enjoy today by keeping things locked behind artificial monopolies. It was exactly the opposite.
Just say No!
No to paywalled research reports;
No to paywalled standards documents;
No to paywalled laws & legal documents.
This is great, and I hope it spreads far and wide. Of course, the problems with Elsevier are manyfold. With the amount of publications under their umbrella, sometimes academics may not even realize that a completely innocuous-looking, seemingly small, journal they want to submit papera to is owned by the giant.
As arrogant and insensitive as it may sound, I’m always on the lookout for when academics I’m acquainted with begin to realize how bad Elsevier is, because otherwise it can be very difficult to convince them. Sadly, not all academics are altruistic or dedicated to free access to and spread of knowledge.
Of course, one vocal academic or five may not make that much a difference. Hit ’em where it hurts — their wallet. If more universities stand up, say enough is enough, and stop subscribing, they may finally get the mssage.
yet somehow I doubt elsevier will follow through on their end of the deal.
Re: Re:
Agreed. I think they’ll try to find a way around it. Monopolists don’t give up their power easily.
Please tell universities, themselves publish their research direct. Forget outside publishers.
Just one beautiful word. sci-hub