The University of Erfurt has announced that it will join the DEAL agreement with Elsevier effective January 1, 2026, expanding its open access publishing options. Of the open access transformation agreements concluded with the three major academic publishers Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley under the auspices of the German Rectors' Conference, the University of Erfurt has participated in the agreements with Springer and Wiley since 2024.
Following an evaluation of the first two years of the agreement and a new cost analysis conducted by the University Library, the university has also decided to join the agreement with Elsevier, starting January 1, 2026.
The agreement provides reading access to more than 2,600 journals in Elsevier’s portfolio and offers simplified options for publishing open access with the publisher. Under the cost model introduced with the DEAL contracts, the total costs for the University of Erfurt are based solely on the number of publications per contract year.
For journals that do not operate entirely under the open access model, classified as hybrid open access, all publications with a corresponding author from the University of Erfurt are assigned based on the affiliation and email address provided during submission. No additional action is required by the publisher, and the University Library covers the article costs through participation fees. An obligation to pay costs remains in effect even if publishers decline the open access option through an opt-out.
A special pricing model applies to Elsevier journals under the Cell Press and The Lancet brands, where fees for articles in hybrid open access journals amount to EUR 7,464 per publication. For journals that operate entirely under the open access model, referred to as fully gold open access, a 20 percent discount on publication fees is granted under the DEAL agreement. For fully gold journals published by Cell Press and The Lancet, the discount is reduced to 15 percent.
The costs for publishing articles in fully gold journals are invoiced to the university in addition to the participation fees. To ensure the correct assignment of publications under the new agreement, authors must select the University of Erfurt as their institution as the corresponding author during the submission process. All articles published open access are subject to a legally compliant Creative Commons license that permits free reuse while maintaining the obligation to cite the original work, with the CC-BY license type recommended.
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