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Wednesday, April 17, 2019

More Elsevier

Via email to faculty from UCLA University Librarian Virginia ("Ginny") Steel:

As you know, negotiations on a new journal contract between the UC system and the academic publishing company Elsevier ended unsuccessfully at the end of February. Elsevier has not yet cut off access to its journals; however, it's possible that that could happen without notice at any time. In that case, we're prepared with alternative access methods so that UCLA faculty, staff, and students can obtain the journal articles they need for teaching and research. Please note that these negotiations covered journals only; they did not involve reference and patient care resources or non-journal research tools, which are on separate contracts.

There is reason to remain confident that we will return to the negotiating table at some point, when Elsevier gives an indication that there is an opportunity for significant progress on the key issues of cost control and open access to UC-authored scholarship. That is in large part because of UC's recent success in reaching agreements on large, multi-year journal packages with other prestigious academic publishers, among which are Cambridge University Press, Karger, Royal Society of Chemistry, Taylor and Francis, and Wiley-Blackwell. These agreements include the ability to do text and data mining, open-access phase-in terms, and discounts on article publishing charges. In all negotiations concluded successfully in 2018, the UC system achieved more than $350,000 in cost reductions.

Thank you for your patience and support throughout this process. We are determined to steer toward an academic publishing system that supports your research and teaching, makes UC publications openly available in alignment with the UC open access policies, and manages costs so that the UCLA Library can continue to build and provide access to one of the world's best research collections.

Your participation is essential to this process, and I look forward to hearing from you by phone at 310.825.1201 or email: vsteel@library.ucla.edu

Source: https://t.e2ma.net/message/m37zul/a61ry

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