Swedish universities and research institutions will reportedly not renew their current contract with publisher Elsevier. The Bibsam Consortium, which represents 85 higher education and research institutions in the country, has said that its current agreement with Elsevier would not be renewed after June 30, 2018. The move comes not long after academic institutions in other countries have let publishers’ subscriptions lapse when fee negotiations come to a standoff.
The Swedish Government requires all publicly funded research be made freely available by 2026.
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; and a sustainable price model that enables a transition to open access.
Swedish researchers publish about 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. Since Elsevier has not been able to present a model that meets the demands of the Bibsam Consortium, the current agreement will not be renewed after June 30th.
Researchers from participating organisations will continue to have access to articles published during 1995-2017 according to the post termination terms in the current agreement, however the publisher will not give access to new subscription-based content that is published after June 30th on the publisher’s platform.
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