Briefing Document: Max Planck Proposal to Flip Subscriptions to OA

"On December 8 and 9, 2015, representatives of different countries, mainly from national licensing consortia, met in Berlin, Germany, to discuss a proposal to flip subscription-based journals to open access models. The initiative is being led by the Max Planck Society, the organizer and host of the invitation-only Berlin 12 Open Access Conference. The rationale for the initiative is based on an analysis outlined in a White Paper published by Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL), which found that a flip to open access would be possible at no financial risk, “maybe even at lower overall costs” to the system. The objective of the conference was to build a consensus for an internationally coordinated effort to shift libraries’ journal budgets away from subscriptions and towards article processing costs model for open access journals (via APCs). The meeting was attended by 96 participants from 19 countries, with several US and Canadian representatives (listed in Appendix 2). The focus of the discussion was an Expression of Interest (Appendix 1) that will act as the basis for gaining consensus and moving forward with the proposal. A large scale shift towards open access is something highly desired by many in the library community and academia. ARL and others have been advocating strongly for open access for at least 15 years and we have collectively made tremendous progress. This initiative aims to accelerate the progress towards large-scale open access by coordinating international licensing agencies and large institutions from around the world, develop a roadmap, and jointly switch from subscriptions to APCs. While the overall aim of this initiative is highly laudable, there are a number of concerns and criticisms to the approach proposed by Max Planck, documented here: ..."