University of California breaks with Elsevier publisher

"The University of California has broken up with the world’s largest scholarly research journal publisher, ending its subscriptions with behemoth Reed Elsevier.

By ending its contract, UC is the first major university system in the U.S. to insist on open access publishing, which makes research findings freely available to anyone, anywhere in the world. It also had been frustrated by the publisher’s increasingly expensive journals....

If many other American universities follow UC’s example, it might be calamitous for the publishers. Research labs and universities in Germany and Sweden also have canceled their subscriptions with Elsevier over open access.

This is no ivory tower dispute: Publication is how new discoveries are shared, building the foundation for future intellectual breakthroughs. As America’s largest research university system, UC believes it has the leverage to alter the century-old subscription model and accelerate open access. Its campuses account for nearly 10 percent of all research produced in the U.S...."