South Korean Universities Make Deal with Elsevier

A consortium of 300 universities and college libraries had taken a strong stance against the publishing giant’s price hikes.

katya katarina zimmer
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ISTOCK, TENMUZ CAN ARSIRAYAfter long negotiations over proposed price hikes for access to Elsevier’s academic literature database ScienceDirect, a consortium of 300 South Korean universities and college libraries came to an agreement with the Dutch publishing giant last week. The consortium had pushed back against a 4.5 percent price hike suggested by Elsevier, but agreed to price increases of up to 3.9 percent after the publisher threatened to withdraw access to the database.

South Korean universities were due to renew their contracts with Elsevier last December. However, the consortium, which formed last May to represent universities in their negotiations with academic database providers, took a strong stance against Elsevier’s price increases and asked for concessions on access to little-used journals and open-access publications.

Although the universities had accepted the publisher’s rate increases in previous years, “we can no longer afford [its] excessive demands,” Hwang In Sung, the research analysis team director at the Korean Council for University Education (KCUE), tells Science.

With the new deal, universities can choose between a one-year renewal with a 3.9 percent price hike and a three-year contract with annual increases of 3.5 percent, 3.6 percent, and 3.7 percent, Sogang University librarian Kim Eun ...

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  • katya katarina zimmer

    Katarina Zimmer

    After a year teaching an algorithm to differentiate between the echolocation calls of different bat species, Katarina decided she was simply too greedy to focus on one field. Following an internship with The Scientist in 2017, she has been happily freelancing for a number of publications, covering everything from climate change to oncology.
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