Evaluation of cancellation of journal agreement with Elsevier 2018 – Kungliga biblioteket – Sveriges nationalbibliotek – kb.se
peter.suber's bookmarks 2020-02-12
Summary:
"In May 2018, the Bibsam Consortium announced that they would cancel the agreement with Elsevier as of June 30 of the same year. The cancellation has stirred attention, both in the media and in academia. Open access and how open access is negotiated into publisher agreements has become known in more parts of the research community.
4,221 researchers and staff responded to an open survey. Many of them chose to submit free text responses about how the cancellation had affected them.
The evaluation shows that the cancellation affected researchers differently. While some were not affected at all in their work (37%), others were negatively (39%) or very negatively (15%) affected. There was no consensus on whether the cancellation was good or not. Many were ambivalent. For example, they understood or supported the reason for the cancellation but were still harmed by it....
The organisations participating in the Bibsam Consortium were less affected than expected by the cancellation. The cost of information work, interlibrary loans, and alternative access services relating to the cancellation were deemed marginal....
The cancellation was also crucial for finally arriving at a new [and better] agreement in November 2019."