Annonce No Deal : Elsevier et Taylor & Francis

Since 2018, the Consortium of Swiss University Libraries (CSAL) has been negotiating with scientific publishers to adapt the old licences to the new national Open Access requirements. These negotiations have made it possible to offer our research community Open Access publication options at no cost to authors with more than ten publishing houses.

Negotiations with Elsevier began in early 2023 and have not yet resulted in a mutually acceptable agreement. Although Elsevier's offer is attractive, it does not fully meet the requirements of the negotiating mandate, and the objectives of the second round of negotiations represent significant progress towards full open access in Switzerland.

As the current agreements with Elsevier and Taylor & Francis expire on December 31, 2023, preparations have been made for a scenario without an agreement from 2024 onwards. Meanwhile, the negotiation team continues efforts to find a solution with both publishers.  

For our researchers, a scenario without a contract will impact both access to reading and publication in their portfolios: 

• Reading Access: Publishers typically provide a grace period, so access to reading may not be immediately disabled. If an agreement is not reached quickly, and once Elsevier has disabled access, content from journals published from January 1, 2024, onward will no longer be accessible unless it is available in open access. Content from journals published from 2023 may be accessible via Post Cancellation Access (PCA). For more information on available content, please refer to the BCUL website. 
• Publication in Hybrid Journals: Researchers can still publish for free in hybrid journals if they wish, but articles submitted to Elsevier and accepted by Taylor & Francis from January 1, 2024, will not be published in open access by the publisher under our institutional license. Researchers can also pay article processing charges (APCs) to publish open access in hybrid journals, but this practice is strongly discouraged as "wild costs" weaken Switzerland's negotiating power. We strongly recommend following the green route, which involves self-archiving a manuscript version in Serval and disseminating it after an embargo period. If you have doubts about self-archiving conditions for your journal, consult Papago or contact your faculty contacts. 
• Publication in Gold Journals: Researchers can still publish in Gold OA journals if they pay the APCs. However, these APCs will not be eligible for payment by the UNIL Gold Open Access Fund to support the negotiating delegation and avoid weakening their bargaining power. The SNSF has announced that it will follow the same policy for Elsevier. 

While this situation would indeed limit access to literature, it does not fundamentally hinder our research and teaching activities. Several options exist for accessing scholarly sources, and swissuniversities has compiled a list in collaboration with the Swiss university library consortium. This list is available in a factsheet and FAQ. 

The Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire - Lausanne (BCUL) will be happy to inform you about alternative ways of obtaining articles, and is at your disposal at https://question.bcu-lausanne.ch/. 

Our recommendation is to prioritize the search for articles in their legal open access version. This search is facilitated by installing "buttons" like Unpaywall, Open Access Button or Core Discovery in your Firefox or Chrome browser, indicating the availability of such versions directly on the publisher's site.

Conversely, self-archiving a copy of your manuscripts in Serval, following the principles of the green route of Open Access, will facilitate access to your publications for many colleagues, always in compliance with your publisher's self-archiving policies.  

Should you have any questions, you can send your inquiries to open.access@unil.ch.