Agreement reached on access to Elsevier journals

23 March 2022

Jisc, which co-ordinates digital services for the higher education sector, has announced today (23 March) that UK universities have agreed a three-year agreement with Elsevier providing both unlimited open access publishing and access to paywalled journal articles for a significant reduction on current institutional spend.

Responding to the news, a Russell Group spokesperson said:

“We welcome the news that UK universities and research institutions have reached an open access agreement with Elsevier following the sector’s acceptance of the latest proposal. 

“The agreement, which offers unlimited open access publishing and maintains read access, means that researchers from across our membership can publish open access across Elsevier’s full portfolio of journals including the Cell Press and Lancet titles.

“The agreement meets the challenging objectives set by out the sector at the start of the negotiations: to deliver full and immediate open access, materially reduce costs to a sustainable, fair and reasonable level and deliver full compliance with UK funder policies. The savings will help our members respond to the multiple financial challenges they face. 

“As the largest open access agreement with UK institutions, this agreement represents a key milestone in the sector’s transition towards full and immediate open access to UK research; 80% of UK research output can now be published open access (versus a global average of 30%)."