(18 Mar 2021) More than two years after negotiations began, the University of California and the academic publisher Elsevier announced on March 16 that they had finally secured an open-access deal.
The new, four-year agreement goes into effect on April 1, making open access the default option for UC academics wishing to publish their work in Elsevier’s journals. This does not immediately apply to the majority of journals that fall under the Cell Press and Lancet portfolios, but those titles will be integrated within the first two years.
This deal implements what’s known as a multi-payer model, which UC has also applied in its other so-called transformative agreements, deals designed to shift publisher contracts from paying primarily for reading paywalled content to paying for publishing articles that are freely available to the public. Under this model, UC will pay the first $1,000 of the article publishing charges (APCs), and the authors will be responsible for covering the rest out of their research funds. If authors don’t have the funds, the library will cover the costs. (Authors can opt out of the open-access option and publish their work behind a paywall if they don’t wish to pay the APCs.)
On social media, reactions were mixed. While some lauded the deal as a win for open access, others were more critical.
More details can be found from the original news here.
