German Universities Prepare For Cut-Off From Elsevier Journals
After licensing negotiations
between German university libraries and Elsevier failed at the beginning of the
month, over 60 university libraries in Germany are preparing to be cut off from
hundreds of journals of the British publisher, after a standoff over pricing
and access.
The university libraries
organised in the DEAL
initiative rejected an offer made by Elsevier earlier this month for a
first nationwide licence, because of an aggressive pricing and flaws in the
access models.
The offer made by Elsevier to
DEAL would “not comply with the principles of open access,” the librarians of
the University of Goettingen wrote in a message to their users, and “despite its current profit
margin of 40 percent, the publisher is still intent on pursuing even higher
price increases.”
With the stop of the
negotiations access to future journal editions be cut off on 1 January, when
current licenses are expiring. But there will also be no access to archived
editions of journals licensed under “individual e-packages for the economic
sciences in particular,” according to the message.
For years, university
libraries have grappled with the problem that they were unable to afford the
journal packages that were filled for free from their scientists in the first
place. Librarians after the cut-off will assist those needing access via
alternative channels, like interlibrary loans, the message from Goettingen
reads.
The fight between
universities and the big publishing houses has been going on for some time,
with a development similar to the DEAL initiative in Germany on
the way by FinELIB in Finland. Over 16,000 scientists followed the call of
renowned mathematician Tim Gowers in 2012 not to further publish or peer-review
for Elsevier.
But the effect has obviously
made no big impression on the publisher so far and a recent study showed that 38 percent of the signatories did
not keep up with the commitment made. Who will win in the standoff between
universities and publishers after January remains to be seen.
Meanwhile British scientists filed a complaint over potential market abuse by Elsevier
with the British Competition and Market Authority.
Link | http://www.ip-watch.org/2016/12/16/no-deal-german-universities-prepare-cut-off-elsevier-journals/
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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