Elsevier Signs Open Access Deal with U.S. Institution

Elsevier, which now describes itself as an “information analytics business,” has inked an open-access agreement with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the first U.S. institution to enter such an agreement with Elsevier. The “transformative agreement” was announced on November 22, 2019. The agreement allows researchers at CMU to both publish open-access articles in any Elsevier journal and access paywalled Elsevier articles by paying one flat fee. Previously, publishing and accessing open-access articles involved two separate payment mechanisms. CMU was engaged in negotiations for an open-access deal with Elsevier for the past year, since its license with the publisher expired on December 31, 2018. Elsevier has engaged in open-access negotiations with other research institutions but agreement costs have been a major source of contention. Earlier this year, open-access negotiations between Elsevier and the University of California system (UC) failed after disagreements over costs, with UC eventually deciding to end its subscription to Elsevier journals. In April 2019, a consortium of Norwegian universities and research institutions successfully reached a “read and publish” deal with Elsevier after agreeing to a 3 percent increase in its subscription costs. The previous agreement only covered access to Elsevier journals and did not include open-access publishing. The new deal covers the open-access publishing costs of 90 percent of article...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news