More than 60 major German research institutions are to be expected to have no access to the full texts of journals by the publisher Elsevier from 1 January 2017 on, among them Göttingen University with 440 Elsevier journals. There will be access to most archived issues of journals, but there may be no access to individual e-packages for the economic sciences in particular.
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In order to improve their negotiating power, about 60 major German research institutions including Göttingen University cancelled their contracts with Elsevier as early as October 2016. Others have announced to follow this example.
A few days ago, Elsevier proposed a first offer for a nationwide licence. The publisher rejects more transparent business models that are based on the publication service and would make publications more openly accessible. Its offer does not comply with the principles of Open Access. Despite its current profit margin of 40 percent, the publisher is still intent on pursuing even higher price increases.
Therefore, the negotiations had to be interrupted. The Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany rejects Elsevier’s offer.
As a consequence, no access to full texts of Elsevier journals is expected to be available from 1 January 2017 on.
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