FinELib’s collaboration with ACS ends
10.10.2024
Negotiations between FinELib and the American Chemical Society (ACS) for the 2025 consortium agreement have concluded without success. This is due to disagreements over significant contract terms.
As the negotiations with ACS have prolonged, the FinELib consortium has been without an agreement on ACS journals for the current year. Researchers and students haven’t had access to the latest ACS articles published behind a paywall, and researchers haven’t been able to benefit from the open access publishing advantages previously included in the FinELib agreement.
The impasse in the negotiations stems from disputes over contract terms. FinELib agreements are governed by licensing principles, which serve as a quality assurance for the consortium members. These principles ensure that the agreements align as closely as possible with the needs of higher education and research institutions.
There were extensive efforts to resolve the issues between FinELib and ACS. Many problem areas were resolved, but the negotiations fell into fundamental differences of views on the liability issues between the subscribing organisations and ACS.
"FinELib consortium acquires a significant proportion of the scientific journals needed by Finnish higher education and research institutions. It is therefore essential for the consortium to have shared licensing principles that reflect the consortium’s objectives. These principles provide a strong and unified basis for negotiations with different publishers," says Kalle-Antti Suominen, Vice-Rector of the University of Turku, and Chair of the FinELib Steering Group.
"FinELib consortium and American Chemical Society have had a 20-year collaboration, which unfortunately now comes to an end. It is regrettable that we couldn’t reach an agreement with ACS. FinELib's task is to conclude license agreements that support researchers and research without imposing unreasonable terms on research organizations,” summarizes Arja Tuuliniemi, Head of FinELib Services at the National Library of Finland.
Thanks to FinELib consortium’s previous ACS agreements, researchers and students still have access to many paywalled articles published between 1996–2023. Open access articles are freely accessible to everyone.
For more information, please contact:
Arja Tuuliniemi, Head of FinELib Services, National Library of Finland (arja.tuuliniemi@helsinki.fi)