First open access science programme signed with Elsevier

A consortium of publicly funded Irish higher education institutions and Elsevier, the 140-year-old publisher and ‘global leader in information analytics’ specialising in science and health, have agreed to the country’s first open access programme with a major scientific publisher, an important step towards the goal of securing full open access to Irish research publications.

The three-year agreement means Irish researchers from 19 institutions will have access to the entire Freedom Collection of 16 million publications from 2,500 journals published by Elsevier and its society partners on ScienceDirect, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature.

The agreement also facilitates a transition to open access and enables Irish researchers to publish more than 70% of their research without having to pay an article publishing charge (APC).

Cathal McCauley, co-chair of the Irish consortium, said: “Our agreement with Elsevier is a significant step towards our ultimate goal of achieving 100% open access for Irish research, in the shortest possible time. It will enable the latest research to be available to all, at the point of publication. We look forward to working closely with Elsevier to use the data gathered from this trial, to improve their OA [open access] offering in future agreements.”

Elsevier is one of the world’s leading subscription and open access publishers, enabling researchers to stay up to date with the latest findings in science, technology and health from around the world.

Gino Ussi, executive vice president at Elsevier, said: “We’re delighted to have concluded this new national agreement in Ireland and we look forward to continuing to support the Irish research community in advancing its ambitious goals. Elsevier is committed to empowering knowledge and remains one of the fastest growing open access publishers in the world, with a 40% increase in articles published in this way in 2019 than the previous year.”

The consortium of Irish higher education institutions consists of seven universities, 11 institutes of technology and the Technological University Dublin. The consortium’s work has been carried out in collaboration with the Irish Research eLibrary, the Irish Universities Association and the Technological Higher Education Association.

The consortium members are: Athlone Institute of Technology; Cork Institute of Technology; Dublin City University; Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology; Dundalk Institute of Technology; Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology; Institute of Technology, Carlow; Institute of Technology, Sligo; Institute of Technology, Tralee; Letterkenny Institute of Technology; Limerick Institute of Technology; Maynooth University; National University of Ireland, Galway; Technological University Dublin; Trinity College Dublin; University College Cork; University College Dublin; University of Limerick; and Waterford Institute of Technology.

Elsevier provides digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and professional education; including ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey and Sherpath.

Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitised journals, including The Lancet and Cell, 39,000 e-book titles and many iconic reference works, including Gray’s Anatomy. Elsevier is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.