APC benefits increase open publishing

20.8.2020

Openly published scientific articles are freely available to anybody on the internet. In 2019, 1751 articles were published Open Access in the journals of several publishers through  agreements negotiated by the FinELib consortium.

Last year FinELib had nine journal package agreements, containing  the right to publish articles Open Access for free  or with discounted Article Processing Charge (APC). The amount of articles published through the agreements increased by 73% compared with the previous year.

Towards open access

Both in Finland and internationally there is an increasingly strong drive towards agreements enabling the OA publishing of all articles without charging authors article processing charges. In 2019 cOAlition S funders published Plan S to promote openness in scientific publishing. Academy of Finland is one of the funders. Plan S requires that scientific articles funded by cOAlition S must be immediately openly available Open with extensive usage rights  from 2021 onwards.

The goal of the Finnish research community’s program of action, Open Access to Scholarly Publications, is that all new scientific article and conference publications are immediately openly available in 2022 at the latest.

Transitional agreements, which enable OA publishing, are one of the central ways to carry out these objectives. Furthermore, the agreements strive to effect a rapid change towards the fall of journal paywalls  and towards OA becoming the new normal of scientific publishing. Several countries around the world are now concluding transitional agreements. Information about them is gathered to the ESAC Transformative Agreement Registry.

Getting rid of the article processing charges

FinELib agreements guarantee various APC benefits  depending on the publisher. Some agreements enable OA publishing in hybrid journals, in others there are also benefits to fully open journals.

The agreements with Royal Society of Chemistry and SAGE cover the OA publishing of all articles published by the subscribing organizations. Springer Compact agreement made it possible to publish all articles Open Access in 2019 and in 2020 the coverage will probably be close to a hundred percent. Wiley agreement will presumably enable the OA publishing of nearly all articles in 2021.

Taylor & Francis, Emerald, American Chemical Society (ACS) and Lippincott agreements contain a fixed amount of OA articles published without additional costs. The downside of these agreements is that for the rest of the articles the researchers must pay APCs or otherwise they will be published behind paywall.

Also the discounted model (FinELib agreement does not cover the whole APC) results in the researcher having to make further payment to the publisher. The Elsevier agreement, for example, provides the researchers with a 50% discount on APCs to publish an Open Access article.

Another example for a funding model for OA publishing is the SCOAP3 consortium. In this model, researchers regardless of the country can publish articles on high energy physics openly in the journals part of the cooperation. The costs are covered by the international consortium, which also Finland is part of.

The various models affect the number of articles published Open Access in the journals covered by the agreements.

Overview of the open access articles covered by FinELib agreements

NB:
* the OA benefit of the AAAS Science Journals agreement is limited to publishing in Science Advances journal only
* agreed open access benefit: gratis articles per year or discounted APC

Better publishing process, more open articles

The fluency of the publishing process affects significantly how uncomplicated OA publishing is for the researcher. The benefit negotiated by FinELib may remain unused if the researcher does not get enough information about it during the publishing process. In the FinELib negotiations, attempts are made to affect the publishing process so that OA publishing will be easy for the researcher.

Only last year the SAGE agreement gave the researchers a considerable discount on the APC. However, the discount was not used since the publisher did not notify the authors of the discount. This was clearly seen in SAGE’s article numbers: in 2019 only 10% of the authors entitled to the discount used it. The new FinELib agreement for the years 2020–2022 covers a hundred percent of the APCs and, among others, there are improvements in the publishing process related to identifying the authors.

The Lippincott journal package agreement contains a fixed number of OA articles, that can be published without extra costs. Ovid’s publishing process does not support OA publishing and the authors are not given enough information on the benefits of OA publishing during the publishing process. Because of this, nearly all free articles included in the FinELib agreement have remained unused.

Reuse rights of Open Access articles

Creative Common licenses are generally used for OA publishing. The license defines how users can utilize the articles. The science funders of cOAlition S require mainly the use of CC BY license, which enables the extensive use of the articles. It is only natural that research funded by the taxpayers can be widely utilized by the whole society.

The selection of licenses varies by publisher and journal title. Some only use CC BY, others offer primarily more restricted CC licenses. FinELib negotiations  aim to guarantee researchers affiliated to Finnish research organizations the right to publish their articles using the CC BY license.

In 2019, 1751 articles were published through FinELib agreements. In 1361 of them, the researcher had chosen the CC BY license. If the publisher offers several licensing options, the researcher is likely to be affected by how the options are presented in the publisher’s system. If the researcher chooses the non-commercial CC BY NC license, the commercial use rights are often left to the publisher and not to the researcher.

 

Who can use the OA benefits?

The OA benefits can be used by the corresponding author affiliated to the organization which is part of the FinELib agreement if the author is publishing an article in a journal covered by the FinELib agreement. In SCOAP3 journals, the article can be published OA if it is about high energy physics.

The OA benefits negotiated by FinELib can be found on the Take Advantage of OA Benefits pages.

 

New agreement enables Open Access publishing in Taylor & Francis journals

2.7.2020

The three-year-contract with Taylor & Francis gives the Finnish researchers a possibility to publish their articles Open Access without extra costs. In addition, the subscribing organizations have access to more than 1800 scientific journals published by Taylor & Francis.

The agreement was finished after prolonged negotiations since in the year 2019 the parties were unable to agree the terms. Although the agreement will not cover the Open Access publishing of all Taylor & Francis articles it is a big step towards the 100 % goal.

Access to the journals after one intervening year facilitates the work of the researchers considerably. 15 organizations joined the consortium agreement for the agreement term 1.1.2020–31.12.2022.

FinELib Consortium finances open science services

2.6.2020

Approximately 15 of the FinELib Consortium member organizations participate in the financing of DOAJ, Sherpa/RoMEOn and SPARC Europe.

DOAJ, Sherpa/RoMEO and SPARC Europe are services or organizations which promote the openness of science. Also many other member organizations have seen the financing of the open science services extremely important.

DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) is a database which indexes high-quality peer reviewed Open Access journals and collects them in one network service.

Sherpa/RoMEO, in turn, is a network service which stores the best known international publishers' conditions of the policies of parallel publishing. The services facilitate the Finnish research community by collecting information and by offering tools when moving towards the openness of science.

SPARC Europe is a non-profit organization which has been financed by the FinELib Consortium member organizations already for nearly ten years. It consists, among others, of academic institutions, library consortiums, financiers, research institutions and publishers.

SPARC Europe tries to affect the promotion of the openness of science and publishing in the European legislation and to help libraries in adapting the legislation. Furthermore, it publishes, for example, reports and reviews of the operating principles of the European research financiers.

Wiley and SAGE agreements published

25.5.2020

The Wiley and SAGE agreements that came into effect at the start of the year have now been published. The agreements cover access to journals collections as well as open access publishing.

FinELib has strived to agree with publishers that we have the right to publish the finalized agreements. This way those looking for this information gain access to it without having to make a freedom of information request. Personal data will not be published.

Some publishers understand the growing demands for transparency. However, we have not been able to agree on this with all publishers. For some agreements the process is still ongoing.

 

Wiley agreement

SAGE agreement

New SAGE agreement contains significant Open Access benefits

12.5.2020

FinELib's new agreement with SAGE enables Open Access publishing without additional costs in 937 SAGE hybrid journals and discounted publishing in 149 Full OA journals.

The researchers of the subscribing organizations participating in the agreement can publish all their articles Open Access in the hybrid journals without article processing charge (APC).

In the Full OA journals, the researchers can publish their articles with 20% discount of the APC’s.

During the whole agreement period, approximately as many as 1,000 articles will be published Open Access.

FinELib's and SAGE's 3-year agreement also guarantees access to nearly 1,000 SAGE journals. The agreement covers 30 organizations and the agreement period is 1.1.2020 –31.12.2022.

Additional information on Open Access publishing in SAGE journals

FinELib's Wiley agreement enables open access publishing

18.2.2020

FinELib and Wiley have signed a 3-year agreement that ensures access to over 1500 scholarly journals as well as open access publishing in Wiley’s Full OA and hybrid journals.

The agreement enables researchers affiliated to the subscribing organisations the opportunity to publish their scholarly articles open access without additional APC payment.

In 2020, approximately 53% of articles can be published open access without any extra cost, while in 2021-2022 the agreement covers approximately 100%. Total amount of open access articles during the agreement period will be approximately 2000.

FinELib’s Wiley deal covers 22 member organisations of the FinELib consortium. The agreement term is 1.1.2020–31.12.2022. Articles accepted for publication from February 17, 2020 will be eligible for open access publishing under this agreement.

Additional information about open access publishing under this agreement
Additional information about the content of the agreement

Wiley and FinELib sign transitional agreement continuing expansion in open access

12.2.2020

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. a global leader in research and education, and FinELib, a Finnish consortium of higher education and research institutions, have announced a new three-year license that combines an open access and subscription agreement effective February 2020.

This 3-year agreement will provide 22 Finnish institutions with continued access to Wiley’s subscription journals and enables their affiliated authors to publish open access articles in Wiley’s fully gold and hybrid journals.

“FinELib is pleased to announce an agreement with Wiley offering open access publishing options for our researchers. With this agreement the amount of open access articles will increase substantially,” stated Arja Tuuliniemi, head of licensing at FinELib.

“We are very pleased to partner with FinELib to advance the open access landscape in Finland. This is an exciting continuation down the path to an open research future,” said Judy Verses, Wiley’s executive vice president and general manager, Research.

As part of the agreement, eligible researchers and students will be automatically identified and notified of the opportunity to publish open access through their institutional connection, at no additional charge.

FinELib institutions will continue to have access to all of Wiley’s journal content.

The 22 eligible institutions will also have access to a distinct open access account dashboard for easy administration of their account, quick article approval, and reporting.

Additional Information

About FinELib

FinELib is a consortium of Finnish higher education institutions, research institutions and public libraries. Its mission is to secure and improve the availability of electronic resources. FinELib promotes openness by negotiating transformative agreements in order to make a transition to open access, without additional costs for the scholarly community.

More information at: finelib.fi

About Wiley

Wiley drives the world forward with research and education. Through publishing, platforms and services, we help students, researchers, universities, and corporations to achieve their goals in an ever-changing world. For more than 200 years, we have delivered consistent performance to all of our stakeholders.

The Company's website can be accessed at: wiley.com

Contact

Wiley

Brian Campbell (US): +1 201-748-6874
Investor Relations
Brian.campbell@wiley.com

Dawn Peters (US): +1 781-388-8408
Corporate Communications & Global Media Relations
newsroom@wiley.com

Follow us on Twitter @WileyNews

FinELib

Arja Tuuliniemi: +358505706584
Head of Licensing, FinELib
arja.tuuliniemi[at]helsinki.fi

Toni Vesterinen: +358503183421
Licensing Coordinator, FinELib
toni.vesterinen[at]helsinki.fi

Follow us on Twitter @FinELibpalvelu

Negotiations of big journal packages with the scientific publishers are progressing

5.12.2019

FinELib negotiates agreements with big scientific publishers on behalf of the national scientific community. With the help of the agreements, the researchers and the students are able to both read the articles behind the publishers' paywalls and publish their own articles openly without any costs for unlimited access to everybody. This is now more important than ever when the openness of the publications is emphasized in the open research policies.

With Wiley, the long-lasting negotiations of open publishing have progressed. It seems that a new agreement for the years 2020-2022 containing open publishing is possible. However, the negotiations on the details of the agreement still continue.

Wiley's journal collection is one of the biggest licensed by FinELib. It contains about 1500 journals from various disciplines.

There is also progress in the negotiations with Sage and the details of a new three-year agreement containing open publishing are under discussion. When completed the Sage Premier agreement will cover about 950 journals.

The negotiations between FinELib and Taylor & Francis broke down inconclusively at the beginning of this year. The negotiations have started again in the course of this autumn but the result is still uncertain.

Read more: Negotiations

Negotiations 2019 – aiming for open publishing

19.8.2019

Traditionally, scholarly articles have been published behind a paywall. These articles can only be read by the researchers whose organization can afford the steep subscription payments. FinELib aims to provide its member organizations and their researchers both the right to read and use research articles as well as the right to publish their articles open access with ease and without additional payments.

The aim of the FinELib consortium is to move the funds previously used for subscription payments into enabling the researchers in Finnish higher education and research institutes to publish their articles open access.

At the same time, the FinELib consortium will hold on to the reading and usage rights of the articles that have been or are still published behind a paywall.

The FinELib consortium’s negotiations are part of a global movement, where an increasing number of countries and consortia are making open access publishing agreements with scholarly publishers. The worldwide aim is that in the next few years the majority of scholarly articles will be published open access, thereby making subscription payments unnecessary.

In the future, instead of making individual researchers pay for the costs, the expenses of open access publishing could be covered, for example, by research funders and higher education and research institutes along with their libraries.

FinELib is currently negotiating the renewal of agreements expiring on December 31st 2019

The current agreement with Wiley covers approx. 1 250 journals without any open access benefits. FinELib’s open access negotiations with Wiley have lasted for several years already. A one-year extension agreement was made for 2019 to give the negotiations more time.

A one-year agreement with Sage covers approx. 950 journals with a substantial discount on open access publishing article processing charges (APC’s). FinELib’s aim for the new agreement is to have it include open access publishing without any expenses to Finnish researchers.

The 2019 agreement with Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) covers 40 journals on chemistry with open access publishing in these journals. By July 2019, 28 articles were published open access. The renewal negotiations of this agreement are ongoing.

So far, some publishers have failed to offer any models that would make a move towards open access publishing. For the 2019 negotiations, this is the case for Elsevier’s Cell Press journals, Springer Nature’s Nature journals, AAAS’s (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Science journals, and IEEE’s (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) electronic library IEL.

Negotiations with these publishers are particularly challenging.

The agreement between FinELib and Taylor & Francis expired at the end of 2018. In 2019 Taylor & Francis have not made a new offer to the FinELib consortium. At the moment, there are no ongoing negotiations with Taylor & Francis.

More than 1,000 open access articles under FinELib agreements

24.6.2019

More than 1,000 open access articles were published in 2018 in the journals of various publishers under agreements negotiated by the FinELib consortium. The articles can be read by anyone and used, for example, as course material within the framework of the relevant CC licence.

Last year, FinELib had eight journal package deals that included a component promoting open access publishing. Figures concerning the open access articles made available under these agreements can be seen in the table below. Some of the agreements only cover a publisher’s hybrid journals, while others also include fully open access journals.

* Springer: October through December (from the beginning of the agreement)

Various models for the transition period

What we are seeing both in Finland and abroad is a shift towards agreements in which the articles of all corresponding authors can be made openly available without additional charges. Agreements that enable open access publishing during the transition period are one of the key means of achieving this goal. In addition, the aim is to instigate a rapid change towards eradicating journal paywalls and to make open access publishing standard academic practice.

At present, FinELib uses various models with different publishers: under the current agreement with Elsevier, researchers receive a 50% discount on article processing charges, whereas the 2017–2018 agreement with Taylor & Francis offered a discount of 60%.

The agreements with Lippincott, Emerald and the American Chemical Society (ACS) include a certain number of open access articles to be made available without additional charges. Under the agreement with Springer signed in October 2018, virtually all articles can be made openly available.

Other funding models for open access publishing include the SCOAP3 cooperation, in which researchers from any country can publish open access articles on high energy physics in the partner journals. The costs are paid by an international consortium, which also includes Finland.

The share of Finnish articles made openly available in journals covered by the agreements depends on the agreement model:

* Springer: October through December (from the beginning of the agreement)

The number of open access articles published by Finns has increased considerably from the previous year. For example, whereas Springer journals published just a few dozen open access articles in 2017, they issued a total of 185 such articles in the first three months of the consortium agreement.

Publishing process affects numbers

Negotiations have also drawn attention to the process of publishing open access articles. Publishers use a variety of models, some good and some not so good. The smoothness of the process has quite a major impact on how easy it is for a researcher to publish open access articles.

For example, Sage offers a considerable discount on article processing charges, but does not announce this at any point in the publishing process. This is clearly reflected in the figures for Sage, with just 5% of corresponding authors taking advantage of the discount in 2018.

* Springer: October through December (from the beginning of the agreement)

Who, how and where?

Open access benefits can be used by corresponding authors affiliated with an organisation involved in a FinELib agreement. (This does not apply to SCOAP3, in which the article must focus on high energy physics, and the corresponding author’s affiliation has no relevance.)

For information on the open access benefits available under FinELib agreements, please click here. Please note that the FinELib agreements do not necessarily encompass all of the journals of a given publisher, so be sure to check the status of your prospective journal!