Deal includes prestigious Cell Press and Lancet journals
UK universities have signed their first open access deal with Elsevier, hailing “significant savings” on sector spend with the world’s biggest academic publisher.
We congratulate the UK for this deal, but scientific knowledge should not only be open but should be not-for-profit as well. Earning massive profits while not paying authors or peer reviewers is not a trait of a reputable title. Seeking millions of dollars for access is decidedly predatory.
Seven previous offers from Elsevier had been rebuffed. The terms of the agreed deal were not immediately available but Times Higher Education previously reported that UK institutions managed to obtain a slightly larger discount – about 10 per cent – to that obtained by the University of California, which said it had secured a 7 per cent reduction in costs, allowing for inflation, when it struck an open access deal last year.
The deal includes access to open access options in the Cell Press and Lancet families of journals.
Liam Earney, managing director of higher education and research at Jisc, which handled negotiations on behalf of UK universities, said the agreement “meets all the core requirements of the sector”.
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