Dutch Elsevier deal good or bad for scholarly open access? – TeleRead

"The VSNU pushed Elsevier to reform its subscription agreements from late 2014, as Dutch universities negotiated renewal of their collective subscription package with the leading scientific and academic publisher. According to the Times Higher Education Supplement, at one point Elsevier sought a major fee increase from the universities – while academic publishing peers Springer and Wiley accepted the Dutch terms. The new agreement, according to Prof. Gerard Meijer, VSNU chief negotiator and Chairman of Radboud University Nijmegen, 'gives academics at Dutch universities subscription access to Elsevier journals and allows them to publish Open Access in a selection of these journals. The Dutch universities aim to make 30% of their researchers’ publications Open Access by 2018 this the agreement makes it possible to get there.' VSNU also stated that 'the agreement is in line with the objective of Sander Dekker, State Secretary at the Ministry for Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands, to transition Dutch scientific output towards an Open Access publishing model.' Dekker had previously pressed for 100 percent of Dutch research articles to be open access by 2024 ..."