Sweden stands up for open access – cancels agreement with Elsevier

Large science publisher Elsevier does not meet the requirements of Swedish universities and research institutes. In order to take steps towards the goal of immediate open access by 2026 set by the Swedish Government, the Bibsam Consortium has after 20 years decided not to renew the agreement with the scientific publisher Elsevier. To be able to make the necessary transition from a subscription-based to an open access publishing system the Bibsam Consortium requires: Immediate open access to all articles published in Elsevier journals by researchers affiliated to participating organisations Reading access for participating organisations to all articles in Elsevier’s 1,900 journals A sustainable price model that enables a transition to open access The agreement will be cancelled 30th of June Elsevier has not been able to present a model that meets the demands of the Bibsam Consortium and the current agreement will not be renewed after 30th of June. Swedish researchers publish approximately 4 000 articles per year in Elsevier journals. In 2017 € 1,3 million was spent on article processing charges, on top of the € 12 million that organisations spend on licensing fees for reading the Elsevier content. Astrid Söderbergh Widding, President of Stockholm University, Chairman of the Bibsam consortium steering committee and Head of the negotiation team, says: “Increasing costs of scientific information are straining university budgets on a global scale while publishers operat...
Source: News from STM - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: European Featured Source Type: news