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Dutch research institutions and Elsevier announce Open Science partnership

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May 19, 2020

The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), The Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres (NFU), the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and the publisher Elsevier have announced a partnership agreement. The agreement includes publishing and reading services as well as the joint development of new open science services.

In December 2019, the research institutions and Elsevier signed a framework agreement. During the past four months, both parties have carefully developed this into a partnership agreement. The agreement consists of the following:

1. Open Access Publishing and Reading Services

This is a national deal that covers reading rights to quality, peer-reviewed content across Elsevier’s extensive portfolio of journals. The deal also supports the aim of 100% open access publishing for all consortium members.

From 1 January 2020, Dutch corresponding authors can publish an unlimited number of articles in Open Access in almost all Elsevier journals. Authors have a choice of Open Access licenses to publish under, including CC-BY. From today, 95% of Dutch articles published in Elsevier journals are immediately made Open Access through this agreement, whereas before we reached only 30% gold Open Access. This will significantly contribute to the Netherlands’ ambition to reach 100% Open Access. You can search for the journals included in the arrangement on this page.

2. Open Science Services for Research Intelligence and Scholarly Communication

Elsevier will work with the Dutch partners to co-develop new services that help disseminate and evaluate knowledge. The parties will undertake several pilot projects to refine and to adapt these services to meet the needs of the Dutch Research Institutions and to support the broader ambition of public engagement with science.

What it means for WUR

Hubert Krekels, WUR Library Director, is glad that the provisionary agreement announced in January is now finalised: "We extended the Elsevier package with a number of new and relevant titles and the agreement also offers 100% reduction for APCs for some Elsevier Gold Open Access journals. I consider this agreement another big step in the development of Open Science in the Netherlands. The next step will be creating a partnership in the development of an Open Science Infrastructure that meets the demands of academia in ownership and openness."

From 1 January 2020, WUR corresponding authors can publish articles Open Access in almost all Elsevier journals. Authors have a choice of Open Access licenses, including CC-BY. Note that only papers submitted after 1 January 2020 are eligible for the deal. The article's corresponding author should be affiliated with Wageningen University and Research or another Dutch university.

Chief-negotiator/President of Delft University of Technology Tim van der Hagen said: “This deal is a breakthrough in our ambition for 100% open access in the Netherlands and a prelude to a public knowledge base for information about scientific output.”

NWO President Stan Gielen said: “Enabling Open Access to research results has been a core mission for NWO since 2003. This agreement is a giant step in our collective ambition to provide 100% Open Access for all publicly funded research in the Netherlands. It is fully aligned with the principles of Plan S and a major breakthrough for open science in general.”

NFU / CEO of Amsterdam UMC Hans Romijn, said: “This is definitely a game changing agreement in open access publishing in medicine from both national and international perspectives, considering the large impact and the volume of Elsevier journals. This will certainly contribute considerably to the advancement of research, and, most importantly, better treatments for our patients.”

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