Seeking Open Access Deal, 60 German Academic Institutions Ditch All Subscriptions With Elsevier

from the united-we-stand dept

In the struggle to provide open access to academic research, one company name keeps cropping up as a problem: Elsevier. Techdirt has written numerous stories about efforts to rein in the considerable -- and vastly profitable -- power that Elsevier wields in the world of academic publishing. These include boycotts of various kinds, mass resignations of journal editors, as well as access to millions of publicly-funded papers in ways that bypass Elsevier altogether.

Alongside these grassroots actions, some universities and research institutes have tried taking a different approach. They are making common cause by banding together in order to strengthen their negotiating hand with the global publishing giant. The aim is to get a better deal from Elsevier, particularly in terms of providing open access to papers. Last year, a group of universities in the Netherlands used this strategy with some success, as Science reports:

A standoff between Dutch universities and publishing giant Elsevier is finally over. After more than a year of negotiations -- and a threat to boycott Elsevier's 2500 journals -- a deal has been struck: For no additional charge beyond subscription fees, 30% of research published by Dutch researchers in Elsevier journals will be open access by 2018.
The Science article points out that this win had limited impact, because only about 2% of all academic papers are produced by Dutch authors. That makes the following move by the much larger German academic community of considerable importance:
The DEAL project, headed by HRK (German Rectors' Conference) President Prof Hippler, is negotiating a nationwide license agreement for the entire electronic Elsevier journal portfolio with Elsevier. Its objective is to significantly improve the status quo regarding the provision of and access to content (Open Access) as well as pricing. It aims at relieving the institutions' acquisition budgets and at improving access to scientific literature in a broad and sustainable way.

In order to improve their negotiating power, about 60 major German research institutions including Göttingen University cancelled their contracts with Elsevier as early as October 2016. Others have announced to follow this example.
According to the post, Elsevier made its first offer to the group, but it was considered inadequate, and so the German institutions have ditched all their subscriptions with the publisher. As they say:
All participants in this process are aware of the imminent effects this has on research and teaching. However, they share the firm conviction that, for the present, the pressure built up by the joint action of many research institutions is the only way to to reach an outcome advantageous for the German scientific community.
Let's hope they are able to preserve their united front in order to win open access to the articles their researchers publish. After all, a win for the DEAL project is also a win for the rest of us.

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+

Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: germany, open access, publishing
Companies: elsevier


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • icon
    art guerrilla (profile), 20 Dec 2016 @ 4:25am

    so-o-o-o...

    ...they are still 70% screwed ? ? ?
    i *guess* that is an improvement; personally, i would have gone for 0% ass raping without consent, but maybe that's just me...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Ninja (profile), 20 Dec 2016 @ 6:06am

    That's good. We should be opening up intellectual property as a whole. The benefits of having a totally free system outweigh any perceived incentives. We haven't reached the progress we enjoy today by keeping things locked behind artificial monopolies. It was exactly the opposite.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2016 @ 6:37am

    Just say No!

    No to paywalled research reports;
    No to paywalled standards documents;
    No to paywalled laws & legal documents.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2016 @ 8:51am

    This is great, and I hope it spreads far and wide. Of course, the problems with Elsevier are manyfold. With the amount of publications under their umbrella, sometimes academics may not even realize that a completely innocuous-looking, seemingly small, journal they want to submit papera to is owned by the giant.

    As arrogant and insensitive as it may sound, I'm always on the lookout for when academics I'm acquainted with begin to realize how bad Elsevier is, because otherwise it can be very difficult to convince them. Sadly, not all academics are altruistic or dedicated to free access to and spread of knowledge.

    Of course, one vocal academic or five may not make that much a difference. Hit 'em where it hurts -- their wallet. If more universities stand up, say enough is enough, and stop subscribing, they may finally get the mssage.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Padpaw (profile), 20 Dec 2016 @ 8:52am

    yet somehow I doubt elsevier will follow through on their end of the deal.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Dec 2016 @ 12:25am

    Please tell universities, themselves publish their research direct. Forget outside publishers.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2016 @ 5:42am

    Just one beautiful word. sci-hub

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.