The Royal Society of Chemistry has issued a statement in response to a recent VSNU statement earlier last week announcing the failure to reach a new agreement on access to scientific journals from the Society.
The Society, in the statement notes that a recent journals subscription negotiations with SURF, a consortium that represents the VSNU association of Dutch universities, resulted in a range of offers presented being turned down. The Society extended a period of grace access to its journals content after the previous deal expired at the end of 2017, an arrangement that will come to an end on March 31, unless SURF are prepared to reopen discussions.
The Society's approach to the negotiations was based on finding a sustainable way to meet the publishing needs of the chemistry community in the Netherlands and underlines their ongoing support for open access publishing. As a not-for-profit society publisher RSC is committed to advancing excellence in the chemical sciences and one of the ways they do this is by disseminating high quality chemical science knowledge.
RSC offered SURF several options for their members, ranging from a standard subscription model to transition 'Read and Publish' option - and a fully Open Access model.
A number of successful 'Read and Publish' agreements are in place, including the Max Planck Society in Germany, several UK institutions and, more recently, a number of university partners in Sweden, Finland and other European countries.
Historically, the Society's subscription prices for Dutch consortium members were based on access to their content and have not taken publishing costs into account. As the output from the Netherland is now much higher in Royal Society of Chemistry journals in relation to their subscription, there is a gap to bridge.
The statement further notes that these models ensure the Society can sustainably continue to reinvest in the chemical science community, an approach that is not mirrored by purely commercial publishers. The Society reinvests into the community by supporting chemists in their careers, disseminating knowledge through their journals, books and databases and being a voice for the chemical science community, ensuring chemistry is listened to by governments and other important bodies.
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