The University of California has reached a new agreement with publisher Elsevier, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Talks between UC and Elsevier stalled two years ago, as UC sought a combined journal subscription and open-access publishing contract, as Inside Higher Ed reported at the time. It added, though, that they were unable to come to an agreement.
The SF Chronicle now reports that the two have reached a four-year deal under which all research with a UC lead author published in an Elsevier journal will be made freely available. In addition, UC researchers and students will again have access to paywalled Elsevier journal articles, IHE adds. The agreement goes into effect at the beginning of April and UC is to pay up to $10.7 million to Elsevier the first year, with 2.6 percent increases subsequent years, it adds.
"This development is a boon for researchers, students and all other members of the public who will be able to read, use, and build upon UC's research and scholarly work," Marta Margeta, associate professor at the Univeristy of California, San Franscico, and chair of a faculty group on scholarly communication, tells the SF Chronicle.
In June, UC reached a similar open-access deal with Springer Nature, and in 2019, Elsevier reached a read-and-publish deal with Carnegie Mellon University.