Kategoria: News in English

FinELib and Sage agree on a new Open Access deal for Finland

17.3.2025

Building on the previous transformative agreement between FinELib and Sage, the new deal allows researchers at participating institutions to publish an unlimited number of open access articles in Sage’s hybrid journals at no additional cost.

For articles submitted to Sage’s Fully OA (Gold) journals, institutions can choose between a 20% discount on the APC or full coverage based on their selected model.

The agreement also provides reading access to Sage’s journal portfolio, while reducing costs and aligning with FinELib’s acquisition requirements.

A complete list of participating institutions can be found here.

Key Benefits of the Agreement

  • Access to Sage Premier 2022 or 2025 collection including over 900 or 1,150 journals.
  • Reduction in fees for all institutions regardless of the choice of collection.
  • Perpetual access rights to subscribed content.
  • Unlimited OA publishing in SAGE's hybrid journals.
  • A 20% APC discount or unlimited publishing in Sage’s Fully OA (Gold) journals depending on the model chosen by institutions.
  • CC BY license by default for all published articles.
  • Annual opt-out for institutions.

For more details, please refer to our author instructions.

New FinELib agreements continue to promote open science

28.2.2025

The agreements finalized in early 2025 enable access to articles published behind paywalls and give researchers the possibility to publish their articles open access without additional costs.

The new agreements signed by the FinELib consortium cover the following journal collections:

These agreements gives access to approx. 3 650 scientific journals and makes it possible to publish approx. 1 450 open access articles annually.

Negotiations on the final agreement details are still ongoing with Wiley and ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). During the negotiations, subscribers will continue to have access to journals from these publishers. Detailed instructions for publishing articles in these journals can be found in instruction pages Open Access Publishing in Wiley Journals and Open Access Publishing in ACM Journals.

Details of the finalized agreements can be found on the Negotiation Status page.

Open access publishing with FinELib agreements can be followed on the Results & Impacts page.

Open Access Publishing After the Turn of the Year

19.12.2024

FinELib is currently negotiating the continuation of scientific journal agreements that expire at the end of 2024. Free open access publishing under FinELib agreements may be put on hold if a new agreement is not ready by the turn of the year.

If a new agreement is not finalized by the end of the year, open access publishing under FinELib agreements may be paused starting from January 1, 2025, in the journals of the following publishers:

The article quotas included in the agreements with Taylor & Francis and Wiley have already been exhausted. Some organizations have continued open access publishing even after this, so please check the situation with your organization’s library or information service.

I’m about to publish my article in a journal from one of these publishers – what should I do?

What happens with the open access publishing of your article depends on the date of acceptance of your article

If the publisher/journal accepts your article during 2024, it can be published open access as part of FinELib's current agreement. provided there are remaining article quotas in the agreement.

If the acceptance of the article falls into 2025, open access publishing can’t be covered by the current agreement. FinELib’s aim is that articles from early 2025 could be retrospectively published open access, if an agreement is reached later in 2025. However, this depends on the final negotiation outcome and cannot be guaranteed.

If no new agreement would be reached with some publishers, open access publishing as part of the FinELib agreement with those publishers would end on December 31, 2024. However, negotiations are still ongoing with all publishers. New agreements will be announced once they are signed.

Please also check FinELib’s guides for open access publishing under existing FinELib agreements, and contact the library of information service of your own organisation if you need additional guidance.

I want to read journals from these publishers – how can I do that?

As negotiations with the publisher continue, access to journals is often granted during negotiation period, even if the old agreement period has ended. Access to journals will thus mostly continue as usual, even if negotiations extend into 2025.

Open access publishing for other FinELib agreements continues as usual

The FinELib consortium also has open access publishing agreements with the following publishers:

  • Cambridge University Press
  • IEEE
  • Elsevier (ScienceDirect Freedom journals)
  • Oxford University Press
  • Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
  • Springer Nature (Springer Compact journals)

These agreements will continue until the end of 2024, and open access publication with these publishers will continue as normal.

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)

Negotiations with ACS continue for 2025

19.6.2024

Due to significant disagreements on the agreement terms, there will be no consortium agreement with ACS for the year 2024. However, the negotiations continue with the goal of reaching an agreement for 2025.

Many key issues are still without a solution in the negotiations between American Chemical Society (ACS) and FinELib. The prolonged negotiations are due to significant differences in views regarding the contract terms.

ACS has demanded several significant changes to the agreement, which would e.g. restrict researchers' and students' ability to use ACS journals as part of their research and studies, such as for data mining, and would increase the responsibilities of universities, universities of applied sciences and research institutions.

The FinELib consortium is seeking solutions to these issues in hopes of continuing the agreement with ACS in 2025.

FinELib will provide more updates on the progress of the negotiations during the autumn.

From the beginning of 2024, universities, universities of applied sciences and research institutions have been without a consortium agreement for ACS journals. Thus, researchers and students from the institutions participating the consortium agreement don't currently have access to the ACS articles published behind a paywall in 2024, nor can they take advantage of the open publishing benefits provided by the FinELib agreements when publishing articles in ACS journals.

However, researchers and students still have access to many articles published between 1996 and 2023 thanks to the previous agreements of the FinELib consortium. Articles published open access are also available for everyone.

For more information, please inquire at your organization’s library or information service.

New agreements with Elsevier, IEEE, and Emerald

23.2.2024

FinELib has finalized new two-year agreements with Elsevier and IEEE. The new agreement with Emerald was signed for the year 2024. The agreements allow open access publishing and access to the publishers' journals.

The new agreements meet the goals of the consortium: they will diminish the costs for reading and publishing in scientific journals while giving the scientific community in Finland a wide access to the necessary articles.

All three agreements allow publishing articles under the CC BY license required by many research funding organizations. Post-cancellation access ensures continuous access to articles published during the agreement term, even if the current agreement is not renewed in the future.

Access to Elsevier ScienceDirect Freedom collection, as well as open access publishing without APCs (article processing charge) in the hybrid journals will continue with the new Elsevier agreement. Hybrid journals that have flipped into fully open access journals between 2021 and 2025 stay eligible for open access publishing. For other fully open access journals, 15% discount is available for the APC.

Quota of 3600 open access articles is included in the agreement, which should be sufficient for the articles accepted during the term.

→ Read more about open access publishing in SD Freedom journals

The agreement with IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) includes access to IEEE Electronic Library (IEL) journals, conference proceedings and standards, and allows open access publishing in hybrid and fully open access journals. The article quota of 740 articles is expected to cover the number of articles accepted for publication during the agreement term.

→ Read more about open access publishing in IEEE's journals

The agreement with Emerald includes access to all Emerald journals and covers APCs of 150 open access articles that can be published in hybrid journals of the Emerald eJournal Premier Collection, or in the open access journals Mental Illness and International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management.

→ Read more about open access publishing in Emerald Premier journals

FinELib is currently negotiating for the agreement details with Oxford University Press (OUP), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and Springer Nature (Springer Compact Collection). Despite the prolonged negotiations, access to the journals of these publishers continues, and open access publishing without APCs is available for researchers.

Negotiations with American Chemical Society (ACS) are also still ongoing. ACS has cut access to its journals and open access publishing under the FinELib agreement has ended.

Read more about the negotiations with ACS: Agreement between FinELib and ACS not renewed

Agreement between FinELib and ACS not renewed

10.1.2024

FinELib and American Chemical Society haven’t been able to reach an agreement in their negotiations. Access to ACS’s new journals has ended at the end of 2023.

FinELib and ACS have been negotiating for a new agreement throughout the autumn but haven’t been able to reach a mutual understanding. There are disagreements over agreement details that are significant for both users and consortium members. ACS has cut access to ACS journals, as the previous agreement between ACS and FinELib ended on December 31st, 2023.

FinELib is aiming to continue the negotiations with ACS.

How can I read ACS journals?

Access to journal articles published in 2023 and earlier will partially continue. The scope of access varies by subscriber, so check the situation with your own organisation’s library or information service. Many organisations still have access to articles published between 1996–2023. This is due to the post cancellation rights included in the FinELib agreements. Some organisations have also acquired permanent access to articles published before 1996.

If you need access to articles published in 2024, or other articles which your organization doesn’t have access to, please check out FinELib’s Alternative Access page. You can turn to  your own library or information service for help.

I will publish my article in an ACS journal – what to do?

Open publishing with FinELib agreements has ended on December 31st, 2023.

If your article was accepted for an ACS journal in 2023, and you meet the conditions for publishing, your article can be published open access for no additional fees under the old FinELib agreement.

If your article is accepted for an ACS journal in 2024, open publishing under FinELib agreement is not available. If you want to publish your article open access, you will need to have funding. You can also decide not to publish your article open access, in which case your article will be published behind a paywall. You can ask your own library, information service or research support services for advice in evaluating your publishing options.

Why has FinELib not renewed its agreement with ACS?

FinELib agreements ensure that the rights of users, authors and organisations are clearly defined and protected. FinELib agreements give readers as wide usage rights as possible, and also protect the rights granted by copyright law. Agreements also guarantee a certain level of protection for member organisations in possible dispute situations. FinELib and ACS haven’t reached an understanding on agreement terms, and as a result FinELib hasn’t been able to renew the agreement with ACS.

FinELib still aims to continue the negotiations with ACS, and to reach an agreement which would restore access to ACS journals and give researchers the possibility for publishing their articles open access in ACS journals for no additional fees.

New agreements in the horizon

22.12.2023

Access to most scholarly journals continue in early 2024, as negotiations continue and new agreements are being finalized.

FinELib has made progress in negotiating with scholarly publishers, and negotiations continue in the new year.

Several publishers – Elsevier (ScienceDirect Freedom), Emerald, IEEE (IEL), Oxford University Press, Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and Springer Nature (Springer Compact) – have agreed to keeping journal access open for current subscribers. This means that users still have access to read journals from these publishers, even though new agreements haven’t been finalized yet.

Negotiations also continue with American Chemical Society (ACS), but there are still significant unfinished issues in the negotiations. There is no guarantee of a new agreement being reached.

For open access publishing with FinELib agreements in 2024, the situation varies from publisher to publisher. You can check the situation with each publisher from FinELib’s Publish Open Access page.

Finalizing agreements with publishers requires that FinELib’s acquisition principles and other negotiation goals are met. FinELib will inform about new agreements as soon as each negotiation is finished.

FinELib consortium is currently re-negotiating seven scientific journal agreements with a combined value of over 16 million euros in 2023. These agreements enabled the open publishing of a total of 3,660 scientific articles in 2022. Publishers currently negotiating with FinELib include American Chemical Society (ACS), Elsevier (ScienceDirect Freedom collection), Emerald, IEEE (IEL), Oxford University Press, Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and Springer Nature (Springer Compact). All Finnish universities, universities of applied sciences and numerous research institutions and public organizations participate in scholarly journal agreements as members of the FinELib consortium.

Open publishing agreements terminating – cancellations possible

29.11.2023

Seven of FinELib’s current journal agreements will terminate by the end of 2023. Negotiations for new agreements are ongoing, but it’s not certain if new agreements will be reached.

If new agreements are not in place by the end of the year, open publication of articles included in the FinELib agreements with the following publishers will end on December 31st, 2023:

  • American Chemical Society (ACS)
  • Elsevier (ScienceDirect Freedom journals)
  • Emerald
  • Oxford University Press
  • Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
  • Springer Nature (Springer Compact journals)

FinELib is currently negotiating with all the publishers mentioned above. Negotiations also continue with IEEE, but the article quota for open publication under that agreement has already been used up earlier this year.

I’m about to publish my article in a journal from one of these publishers – what should I do?

What happens with the open access publication of your article depends on the date of acceptance of your article.

If the publisher/journal accepts your article during 2023, it can be published open access as part of FinELib's current agreement.

If the acceptance of the article falls into 2024, open access publishing can’t be covered by the current agreement. Negotiations for new FinELib agreements might be prolonged into 2024. FinELib’s aim is that articles from early 2024 could be retrospectively published open access, if an agreement is reached later in 2024. However, this depends on the outcome of the negotiations and cannot be guaranteed.

If reaching a new agreement seems likely, FinELib will provide publishers’ guidelines for authors whose articles are accepted for publication in the early 2024 during December/January.

It's also possible that for some publishers, a new agreement won't be reached. In that case, open access publication as part of the FinELib agreement ends on December 31, 2023. From 2024 onwards, you can either publish your article behind a paywall – and "self-archive" by placing a copy of your article in a repository – or you can arrange for the payment of the APC yourself. In these cases, you can check whether your institution has made funding available for paying APCs.

FinELib will provide further information on the status of negotiations during December.

Please check FinELib’s guides for open access publishing under existing FinELib agreements.

I want to read journals from these publishers – how is it possible?

If negotiations with the publisher continue, access to journals is often granted during negotiations, even if the old agreement period has ended. For many publishers, access to journals will continue as usual, even if negotiations extend into 2024.

If negotiations between FinELib and a publisher do not conclude successfully, access to new journal articles published in 2024 will cease. However, for many publishers, access to articles published in 2023 or earlier will remain unchanged, even without a new agreement. This is due to long-term usage rights from previous agreements.

For articles you can no longer access directly from the publisher website, you can seek access by utilizing FinELib's Alternative Access plan or by contacting your organization's library or information service.

Other FinELib agreements for open publication will continue as usual

The FinELib consortium also has agreements which include open access publishing with the following publishers:

These agreements will continue until the end of 2024, and open access publication with these publishers will continue as normal.

FinELib’s agreement with Springer Nature includes the right to publish a limited number of articles open access in Nature Research journal titles. This article quota has been used up.

Looking for better value

14.11.2023

Which scholarly journal agreements offer good value for money for higher education and research? Which agreements make a difference for open publishing, and which agreements give access to the most important journals? And above all, what is a fair and sustainable price for this?

FinELib consortium is seeking answers to these questions when negotiating with scholarly publishers.

FinELib is currently negotiating with seven scholarly journal publishers. The goal is to significantly reduce the price of scholarly journal agreements. In the background are the challenging financial situations at higher education and research institutions, as well as the increasing costs of journal subscriptions.

When evaluating agreements and offers, FinELib emphasizes obtaining the best possible value from the agreements. Evaluation considers factors such as pricing, the quality of the journals included in the agreement, the sufficiency of open access article allowance, and the publisher's commitment to open publishing.

If the price does not reflect the true value of the dealor if there are other significant shortcomings in the offer, FinELib is prepared not to renew the agreement. If the publisher's offer aligns with FinELib’s goals, a new agreement can be signed.

However, each higher education and research institution individually assesses whether the agreement is good enough for them and whether it's worth joining.

FinELib is also considering agreements with publishers that it currently doesn’t have agreements with. Both established smaller and medium-sized publishers, as well as newer open access publishers, are being considered. When evaluating who to start negotiating with, FinELib considers eg. the importance of the publisher's journals to the consortium's members, pricing, and the publisher's commitment to open publishing.

The goal is to achieve agreements that ensure access to important resources for higher education and research and provide researchers with the opportunity to publish their articles open access in the journals of their choice. At the same time, it is important to keep the costs of the agreements at a level that allows FinELib member organizations to subscribe to the materials important to them.

FinELib consortium is currently re-negotiating seven scientific journal agreements with a combined value of over 16 million euros in 2023. These agreements enabled the open publishing of a total of 3,660 scientific articles in 2022. Publishers currently negotiating with FinELib include American Chemical Society (ACS), Elsevier (SD Freedom collection), Emerald, IEEE, Oxford University Press, Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and Springer Nature (Springer Compact collection). All Finnish universities, universities of applied sciences and numerous research institutions and public organizations participate in scholarly journal agreements as members of the FinELib consortium.

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