(12 Oct 2023) Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources (JUSTICE) and Elsevier have established a transformative agreement in a major step forward in advancing global access to Japan’s scholarly publications through open access publishing. The three-year agreement will take effect from 2024 to 2026.
The agreement, the largest of its kind to date in Japan and Asia, aims to openly share and amplify Japan’s world-class research for the benefit of society.
To respond flexibly to the diverse needs of Japanese universities, JUSTICE and Elsevier held consultative discussions on ways to provide Japanese researchers access to quality academic journals and support them in publishing open access. The read-and-publish agreement will be made available through JUSTICE to Japanese universities.
57 member universities from the JUSTICE consortium were amongst the team that participated in the discussion of the proposal, whose collective input contributed to the development of this unique framework tailored to the specific needs of Japanese institutions.
140 universities, including those that participated in the discussions, have already expressed interest in the transformative agreement and will benefit from preferential terms if each university decides to opt into it.
The actual execution of the contract will be administered independently for each university, and not every university that has expressed interest in this agreement will opt in immediately. The contract commencement date for each university is yet to be determined at the time of this announcement.
The press release in full is here.
