News & Views: Will Consortia Cancellations Change the Market? - Delta Think

"Swedish consortium Bibams’s recent cancellation of its contract with Elsevier is the latest in a series of high-value “publish and read” negotiations to make the news. It follows other examples such as Germany’s Projekt DEAL (also affecting Elsevier) and France’s Le Consortium Couperin (affecting Springer Nature). These multi-million dollar (or Euro or Kroner) negotiations have in common the advocacy of increased OA adoption. So we thought we would take a look at what effects they might have on the market place if the consortia negotiators have their way and cancellations became commonplace. Background and Common Drivers Negotiations undertaken by the Netherlands’ VSNU consortium from 2014 are now seen as a game changer for national consortia deals. Some aspects of the deals are familiar – such as enterprise-style licensing, multi-year contracts, and specified price rises, but there are some features which suggest a shift in balance of power in favor of the buyers..."