Source: Radio New Zealand
The Council of Australasian University Librarians said the agreement marked a substantial shift toward fair, sustainable and transparent access to research across both countries. AFP
Universities have announced a deal with academic publisher Elsevier that will save them money and increase public access to their research.
The in-principle agreement covers all New Zealand and Australian universities and resolves an impasse that threatened to cut their access to important research journals next year.
The Council of Australasian University Librarians said the agreement marked a substantial shift toward fair, sustainable and transparent access to research across both countries.
“The in-principle agreement delivers a substantial reduction in sector expenditure, uncapped hybrid open access publishing across the full Elsevier portfolio, including internationally renowned journals such as Cell Press and The Lancet, and other measures to begin addressing the inequities associated with previous legacy pricing models.”
The council’s Open Access Negotiation Strategy Committee chair and Deakin University vice-chancellor Professor Iain Martin said the agreement addressed longstanding issues with previous Elsevier agreements.
“Through this agreement, more than 10,000 [Australian and New Zealand] research articles will be published openly with Elsevier in 2026, providing public access to our research for the communities we serve.”
The chair of the council’s Content Procurement Committee, Hero Macdonald, said it was significant that the agreement was reached without interrupting universities’ access to Elsevier publications.
“In most international examples, achievements of this scale have only been secured through significant disruption and multi-year cancellations,” they said.
The council said it had agreements with three other major journal publishers, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
