Irish higher education institutions and Elsevier have signed a new transformative agreement to continue to support open access for research in Ireland
A consortium of Irish higher education institutions has been negotiating with Elsevier since 2022 to secure continued access to ScienceDirect content and supports for open access publishing. The consortium is delighted to announce that negotiations have concluded and a new ScienceDirect agreement with Elsevier will further enhance research access and the transition to open access publishing in Ireland.
The ScienceDirect Ireland Consortium has been consistent from the outset about the need for an agreement that made significant progress towards delivering open access (OA) on the ScienceDirect platform to publications by authors from the 16 consortium member institutions.
The three-year agreement (2023–2025) continues to facilitate a transition to OA and will enable authors from the consortium member institutions to publish more than 70% of their research open access without having to pay an Article Publishing Charge (APC).
Students and researchers will have continued access to over 16 million publications from 2,500 journals published by Elsevier and its society partners on ScienceDirect. This new agreement includes a 20% increase in the number of articles that researchers across the consortium can publish open access. This will ensure that cutting-edge research from Ireland and beyond is available to the community in an affordable and sustainable manner. The agreement will be reviewed annually, and feedback from the scholarly community will be essential in ensuring that it meets the needs of all involved.
Cathal McCauley & John McDonough, Co-chairs of the consortium said “The completion of a new agreement with Elsevier is significant in progressing the ultimate goal of achieving 100% open access for Irish research. The increased number of articles that can be published open access will contribute to developments in this area and is a step towards meeting the growing demand from our researchers for their outputs to be available open access as timely as possible. We look forward to continuing our work with Elsevier to realise our goal.”
"This new open access agreement exemplifies Elsevier's commitment to an open future and our ongoing support for Ireland's research and education communities. We are thrilled to be able to provide Irish researchers with the tools they need to make and share important discoveries and contribute to advancing knowledge," said William Rubens, Vice President Europe, Elsevier.
For more information about this agreement and how to avail of it at Mary Immaculate College, please contact Áine Finucane, Librarian, by emailing aine.finucane@mic.ul.ie.
About the ScienceDirect Ireland Consortium
The ScienceDirect Ireland Consortium consists of 16 members: all Irish universities, technological universities, institutes of technology and other higher education institutions.
The consortium’s work has been in collaboration with IReL (the Irish Research e-Library consortium), IUA (the Irish Universities Association) and THEA (the Technological Higher Education Association).
The consortium members are:
- Atlantic Technological University
- Dublin City University
- Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design And Technology
- Dundalk Institute of Technology
- Maynooth University
- Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
- Munster Technological University
- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
- South East Technological University
- Technological University Dublin
- Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest
- Trinity College Dublin
- University College Cork
- University College Dublin
- University of Galway
- University of Limerick
