Publisher Elsevier has reached a so-called "read-and-publish" agreement with a Norwegian consortium, Nature News reports.
This deal gives researchers at the 46 Norwegian universities and research institutes represented by the consortium access to about 2,800 of Elsevier's journals, Nature News says, adding that 1,850 of the researchers' articles will then be free to read upon publication. This, it says, covers the vast majority of research published in Norway each year.
Publishers and university library groups have been sparring over journal access, as library groups have been pushing for such "read-and-publish" contracts. In this scenario, subscription and open-access publishing fees are bundled together. Publishers like Elsevier have been resistant to the notion, saying previously that its current scheme is popular.
The publisher Wiley recently came to an agreement with Project DEAL, a German consortium, about journal access, while University of California's negotiations with Elsevier came to a halt in March, when the university system announced it would not be renewing its subscription. Elsevier has also been negotiating with libraries in Germany, Hungary, and Sweden, but Nature News reported in early February that those efforts, too, may have stalled.