UK university drops Elsevier deal - Research Professional News

"The University of Surrey has opted out of a subscription deal with the academic publishing giant Elsevier, saying the arrangement is not financially sustainable.

The move, coming after the University of Sheffield cancelled its subscription deal with Elsevier, further spotlights how the crisis in university finances is beginning to impact on universities’ subscription deals with publishers—and on the publishing industry.

Surrey had been part of arrangements negotiated by Jisc, which negotiates publisher deals on behalf of the UK’s higher education sector and other partners. A spokesperson for Elsevier told Research Professional News that it currently has an agreement with over 150 institutions in the UK, and that the publisher was “delighted” to have Jisc “as customers going into 2025”.

However, a spokesperson for Surrey told RPN that the university continuously reviews all it commercial subscriptions for value for money, and had concluded that the Jisc-negotiated ‘Read and Publish’ deal with Elsevier was “not sustainable in the current financial climate”...."