Sweden cancels Elsevier contract as open-access dispute spreads | Times Higher Education (THE)

ab1630's bookmarks 2018-05-17

Summary:

"Swedish universities have moved to cancel their contract with journal publisher Elsevier as concern over slow progress towards open access spreads.

The Bibsam Consortium, which represents 85 higher education and research institutions in the country, said that its current agreement with Elsevier would not be renewed after 30 June.

The consortium said that the publisher had been unable to meet its requirements of immediate open access to all articles in Elsevier journals published by researchers affiliated to member organisations; reading access for member organisations to all of Elsevier’s journal content; and a “sustainable price model that enables a transition to open access”.

Sweden’s government has said that all publicly funded research should be made freely available by 2026.

The country’s universities are the latest to pull the plug on journal subscriptions in a bid to force big publishers to move to an open-access model, following a long-running row between Germany and Elsevier, and in the wake of French research institutions’ refusal to agree a new deal with Springer. In both of these cases, the publishers have continued to offer access to their content to researchers.

The Bibsam Consortium complained that, while its organisations had spent €12 million (£10.5 million) on subscription fees to Elsevier journals in 2017, they were now also spending €1.3 million annually on article-processing charges for open-access publishing, without a reduction in the cost of their subscriptions. Swedish researchers publish about 4,000 articles a year in Elsevier periodicals, according to the consortium...."

Link:

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sweden-cancels-elsevier-contract-open-access-dispute-spreads

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » ab1630's bookmarks

Tags:

oa.new oa.sweden oa.elsevier oa.consortia oa.boycotts oa.negotiations oa.europe oa.hei oa.fees oa.offsets oa.libraries oa.publishers oa.strategies oa.milestones oa.profits oa.progress oa.big_deals

Date tagged:

05/17/2018, 12:32

Date published:

05/17/2018, 08:32