DEAL (project)
The DEAL project was initiated in 2014 by the Alliance of German Science Organizations to negotiate new contract models nationwide with the three major science publishers Elsevier , Springer Nature and Wiley .
By consortium agreements concluded by the DEAL negotiating group, academic libraries, universities and research institutions throughout Germany on the one hand the permanent access to all electronic journals ( e-journals allows) of those sites. In addition, the DEAL contracts explicitly include the right for authors of the participating institutions to publish their latest research results directly and permanently under an open access license with the respective publisher. The aim of the DEAL project is transparent pricing for comprehensive access to scientific content and publication-based accounting for open access publishing.
The project is led by the German Rectors' Conference (HRK).
background
The HRK criticized the strong price increases in the scientific publication sector that have persisted for years (the so-called journal crisis ). The publishers are increasingly offering their content for purchase only in large packages (“big deals”) with a complex price structure. At the same time, some publishers generate very high returns; at Elsevier, for example, that was 36.8 percent in 2017. Up to the DEAL project, over half of the editions of the German university libraries went to the three large publishers Elsevier (28% of the editions), Springer Nature (17%) and Wiley (13%).
Against this background, the rector of the University of Leipzig, Beate Schücking, called for a national acquisition strategy for the magazine packages of the relevant major publishers in the summer of 2013. With her request she laid the foundation stone for the establishment of the DEAL project by the Alliance of German Science Organizations.
DEAL contracts
DEAL contracts are currently based on a so-called “publish and read” model (PAR model). In addition to a comprehensive supply of literature to the German academic institutions, this is also intended to ensure adequate payment for the publication of an article and its permanent free availability (open access). All publications by authors from German institutions are published by the participating publishers under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license . This new type of contract design is also referred to in English with the term “transformative agreements” (open access transformation contracts). The exact wording of the DEAL contracts is publicly available. DEAL contracts thus lead to transparent pricing according to a publicly comprehensible calculation model, which is based on the volume of publications.
However, individual institutions do not pay the respective amounts directly to the publishers, but use MPDL Services GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of the Max Planck Society , which was founded specifically for this purpose , as a link.
The DEAL project acts in accordance with the objectives of Plan S and stands behind LIBER's negotiating principles . Further collaborations and coordination exist with the OA2020 project and the guidelines of the research funders in other countries.
course
In 2016, negotiations began with the three major scientific publishers Elsevier, Wiley and Springer Nature on nationwide licenses for university and research libraries. The "DEAL" licenses are intended to replace the subscription contracts previously concluded for German institutions . Initial negotiations were initially unsuccessful. Numerous university libraries and other scientific institutions subsequently decided not to renew their license agreements with the largest scientific publisher, Elsevier. In 2017, interim solutions were agreed with Springer Nature and Wiley that ensured access for the duration of the negotiations. In 2019, a DEAL contract was signed with Wiley and in 2020 with Springer Nature.
Conclusion of contract with Wiley
On January 15, 2019, Projekt DEAL achieved the first contract with the publishing house Wiley. As part of a 3-year contract, the parties agreed on a “publish and read” model.
The contract volume is based on the academic institutions' 2017 Wiley subscription spending (+ ~ 3% price increase per year), which is now used for Open Access publications and unrestricted access to subscription content in Wiley's journal portfolio. Through the agreement, all project DEAL institutions will have access to all of Wiley's scientific journals retrospectively to 1997. In addition, their researchers can publish their research articles in all Wiley journals with Open Access. The PAR fee for publications in hybrid journals was set at 2750 euros per article. Wiley grants a discount of 20% on Article Processing Charges (APCs) for publications in the golden open access journals. The first experience reports from the implementation of the contract are now available.
Conclusion of contract with Springer Nature
After a memorandum of understanding was drawn up in August 2019, the DEAL project concluded a “Publish and Read Agreement” with the Springer Nature publishing house on January 9, 2020. In this 3-year contract with the option of a one-year extension, the participating institutions are given permanent digital access to the current volumes of the approx. 1,900 Springer journals (including Springer Medical, Palgrave, Adis and Macmillan Academic, but without Nature journals and magazines and technical journals) guaranteed. In addition, free backfile access to the journal portfolio is granted until 1997. This right of access is offset by publication fees (PAR fees / publish and read fees) of 2,750 euros for research articles and 917 euros for non-research articles. For the additional purchase of print editions of the respective magazines, all participating institutions receive a discount of 75% on the list price.
Negotiations with Elsevier
The DEAL negotiating group has been in contact with representatives of the Elsevier publishing house since 2016; a contract has not yet been reached. Negotiations have been suspended since July 2018. Horst Hippler , President of the HRK and negotiator on the side of science, said: "The excessive demands of the Elsevier publishing house have forced us to interrupt the negotiations on the" DEAL "project with the publishing house."
Around 200 institutions have terminated their regular license agreements with Elsevier in this context. It can be assumed that many of the researchers concerned are turning to legal alternatives, such as interlibrary loan and document delivery services , or to private or unofficial channels. In connection with the failed DEAL negotiations, scientists resigned from the editorial board of Elsevier journals.
reception
The months of negotiations on the implementation of a Germany-wide “publish and read” license attracted a great deal of attention worldwide.
At the beginning of 2017, the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels filed a complaint against the Alliance of Science Organizations with the Federal Cartel Office. DEAL destroys competition and endangers the diversity of publications, so the argumentation. The Bundeskartellamt did not take up the complaint.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ David Matthews: Elsevier's profits swell to more than £ 900 million. Times Higher Education . February 20, 2018, accessed December 2, 2018 .
- ↑ Frank Scholze: Project DEAL context . Leipzig March 19, 2019 ( kobv.de [PDF; accessed March 20, 2020]).
- ↑ Amory Burchard: National licenses for university libraries required. In: Der Tagesspiegel. August 11, 2013, accessed May 24, 2020 .
- ^ Transformative Agreements. In: ESAC. Retrieved May 24, 2020 .
- ↑ DEAL project. Nationwide licensing of offers from major science publishers. Retrieved December 2, 2018 .
- ↑ MPDL Services GmbH. Retrieved on March 20, 2020 (German).
- ↑ OA2020 initiative. Retrieved May 24, 2020 .
- ^ Leonhard Dobusch: Great solidarity among scientific institutions: Will the switch to Open Access come? January 17, 2018, accessed January 18, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Wiley and Project DEAL sign agreement. University Rectors' Conference, January 15, 2019, accessed on May 24, 2020 .
- ↑ Springer Nature and Projekt DEAL sign the world's most extensive Open Access Transformation Agreement, starting January 1, 2020. University Rectors' Conference, January 9, 2020, accessed on May 24, 2020 .
- ^ Kai Kupferschmidt: Groundbreaking deal makes large number of German studies free to public. Science. January 15, 2019, accessed January 17, 2019 .
- ↑ Kathrin Zinkant: Scientific knowledge is freely available. Süddeutsche Zeitung . January 16, 2019, accessed January 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Alexandra Jobmann: Webinar “Local Implementation of Open Access Transformation Contracts Using the Example of the DEAL-Wiley Contract”. In: Open Access 2020. April 7, 2020, accessed on April 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Springer Nature and Germany's project DEAL Finalize World's Largest Transformative Open Access Agreement. In: Springer Nature. January 9, 2020, accessed March 19, 2020 .
- ^ Kieselbach, Stefan: Project DEAL - Springer Nature Publish and Read Agreement . January 2020, doi : 10.17617 / 2.3174351 ( handle.net [accessed on March 19, 2020]).
- ↑ "Deal" dispute escalates: Elsevier suspends deliveries - book report . In: book report . July 19, 2018 ( buchreport.de [accessed November 24, 2018]).
- ^ Sascha Lauer: Contract cancellations Elsevier 2017. October 16, 2017, accessed on October 17, 2017 .
- ↑ Bernhard Mittermaier: From the DEAL engine room - a conversation with Bernhard Mittermaier. In: LIBREAS. Library Ideas # 32.Retrieved March 19, 2019 .
- ^ Scientists resign from editing Elsevier journals. University Rectors' Conference, October 12, 2017, accessed on October 16, 2017 .
- ↑ Gottfried Haufe: HRK press release: “Scientists put down the publisher of Elsevier journals” + list. In: Project DEAL. April 20, 2018, accessed June 17, 2020 .
- ↑ Press review. Project DEAL, accessed on May 24, 2020 .
- ↑ "DEAL" endangers the variety of publications in specialist journals. In: Börsenblatt. February 27, 2017, accessed January 12, 2018 .
- ↑ Börsenverein fails with "Deal" cartel complaint. In: book report. June 14, 2017, accessed January 12, 2018 .
Web links
- Project page. Retrieved September 20, 2017 .
- SPARC : Big Deal Cancellation Tracking. Retrieved on December 17, 2018 (English, tabular compilation of failed DEAL negotiations worldwide).
- MPDL Services GmbH . Retrieved March 20, 2020.