The University of California education system, known for its research capabilities, has recently been cut off from its primary source of scholarly journals. Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher of journals and the main source for the UC schools for academic journals, indicated their plan after negotiations ended between both entities. The deal between UC and Elsevier failed due to disagreement on the amount of accessible content and the price of the material. Hence, the cutting off of access to articles was not a surprise since news of the disagreement broke in February.
However, the occurrence at the UC system was not the first issue regarding changes in publishing prices. While UC and scholars understand paying for subscriptions and open access publishing fees, they think that publishers should allow articles to be automatically accessible for free. It does not distract from the fact that UC relies on Elsevier to provide articles. In fact, they are downloaded every three seconds and the cancellation of Elsevier proves to be a significant obstacle for UC researchers.
The UC libraries are determined to find ways around the cancellation. The concept of interlibrary loans has been the primary alternative method. Although interlibrary loans could take up to four days to produce the desired article, another approach being discussed is simply emailing the author of the article, but it is uncertain how long it would take to obtain the desired article. The UCs will have until December to produce an alternative method since that is when the contract formally ends.
The nullification of the agreement has presented much discussion across campuses. Professors are dedicated to open-access research even at the expense of articles becoming less accessible. Other professors have voiced their concerns about the changes in the agreement, indicating that it will significantly hinder their research.
Despite the changes, Elsevier is willing to find a compromise with the UC education system. Likewise, the UC system remains open to negotiating with Elsevier again. The determining factor towards reaching an agreement will be in the price negotiations.
Photo by Tyler Callahan
