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As the current agreements with Elsevier and Taylor & Francis expire on December 31, 2023, preparations have been made for a scenario without an agreement from 2024 onwards
Since 2018, the Consortium of Swiss University Libraries (CSAL) has been negotiating with scientific publishers to adapt the old licences to the new national Open Access requirements. These negotiations have made it possible to offer our research community Open Access publication options at no cost to authors with more than ten publishing houses.
Negotiations with Elsevier began in early 2023 and have not yet resulted in a mutually acceptable agreement. Although Elsevier's offer is attractive, it does not fully meet the requirements of the negotiating mandate, and the objectives of the second round of negotiations represent significant progress towards full open access in Switzerland.
As the current agreements with Elsevier and Taylor & Francis expire on December 31, 2023, preparations have been made for a scenario without an agreement from 2024 onwards. Meanwhile, the negotiation team continues efforts to find a solution with both publishers.
For our researchers, a scenario without a contract will impact both access to reading and publication in their portfolios:
While this situation would indeed limit access to literature, it does not fundamentally hinder our research and teaching activities. Several options exist for accessing scholarly sources, and swissuniversities has compiled a list in collaboration with the Swiss university library consortium. This list is available in a factsheet and FAQ.
The Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire - Lausanne (BCUL) will be happy to inform you about alternative ways of obtaining articles, and is at your disposal at https://question.bcu-lausanne.ch/.
Our recommendation is to prioritize the search for articles in their legal open access version. This search is facilitated by installing "buttons" like Unpaywall, Open Access Button or Core Discovery in your Firefox or Chrome browser, indicating the availability of such versions directly on the publisher's site.
Conversely, self-archiving a copy of your manuscripts in Serval, following the principles of the green route of Open Access, will facilitate access to your publications for many colleagues, always in compliance with your publisher's self-archiving policies.
Should you have any questions, you can send your inquiries to open.access@unil.ch.