End of big deals is a chance to build a better publishing system | Research Professional News

"Until recently, though, the combination of routes to publication with access to large amounts of content left many universities viewing these deals as too big to fail. So what has changed? I would suggest a combination of two factors.

The first is widespread dissatisfaction with the current model. Read-and-publish deals were never seen as ends in themselves; they were intended as a transitional step between closed, subscription-based models and full open access.

However, the transition is moving at a glacial pace. A review published last year calculated that at current rates it would take the five largest publishers 70 years to fully flip their hybrid titles to open access. To the frustration of many academics, librarians and funders, read-and-publish deals have provided big publishers with a comfortable and lucrative new normal...."