UK Universities and Elsevier negotiations: July update

Sector negotiations

UK Universities, which includes the University of Leicester, on behalf of their researchers, are currently negotiating for an open access (OA) agreement with Elsevier. The two core objectives are:

1. To reduce costs to levels they can sustain
2. To provide full and immediate open access to UK research.

Negotiations commenced in March and the negotiations are led by the sector and facilitated by Jisc. Jisc have produced a useful video, outlining the current open access (OA) publishing environment and the role of transitional/transformative agreements in accelerating access to research.

The current Jisc Collections Elsevier ScienceDirect Journal agreement, which commenced in 2017 will end on 31 December 2021 and is the UK's largest subscription agreement.  The background to the Elsevier ScienceDirect journals agreement sector negotiations and why they are important can be found on the Jisc Elsevier negotiations website.

Some key messages

• Jisc has negotiated more than 30 transitional open access agreements and 50% of all UK research output is now covered by a transitional agreement

• Open access publishing should be the default and it will accelerate the discovery of our research

• The transition toward open access will allow people to access our research freely and without encountering paywalls

• The sector has already achieved transitional agreements with major publishers, including Springer Nature and Wiley enabling to transition to open access in an affordable way

What's happening locally with Transitional Agreements and Open Access negotiations?

The University of Leicester has signed up to several transitional/transformative agreements and publisher discounts, with the following publishers:

Wiley, IOP Publishing, Cambridge University Press, BMJ Publishing, Royal Society of Chemistry, Oxford University Press, Taylor & Francis, SAGE, and Springer Nature (Springer Compact). Remember to contact the University Library Research Services team on openaccess@leicester.ac.uk for further information on transitional agreements and open access funding.

In July and August the University Librarian (Interim) will be engaging with our academic community on the current sector negotiations with Elsevier, and further details will be made available shortly. In the meantime, if you have any queries, or comments around the negotiations, transitional agreements, or generally about open access then do drop us an email at openaccess@leicester.ac.uk