Open access campaigners toughen stance towards publishers | THE News

"Open access advocates want universities to be prepared to “pull the plug” on their subscription deals with big publishers, in a sign of an escalation in tactics to open up more research.

As the German academy remains locked in a dispute with Dutch publishing giant Elsevier, those campaigning for open access struck a combative tone at a conference in Berlin, which also heard frustrations that the move away from closed journals was not proceeding fast enough.

Gerard Meijer, director of the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, who led Dutch universities in their protracted negotiations with Elsevier in 2015, told delegates that in order not to be “held hostage” by publishers during talks, “complete opting-out of the contracts had to be a realistic option. And we are prepared for that.”

The aim was to give publishers two options: “either to go along in the transformation [to open access] or to face cancellation of the contract”, he told delegates at OA2020 on 22 March.