As you may know, the University of California (UC) has been out of contract with the publisher Elsevier since January but, so far, the publisher has continued to provide access to new articles via ScienceDirect. Although Elsevier has not yet provided us with official notification, we now have reason to believe that the publisher will shut off that direct access in the first half of July, after the July 4 holiday.
When that happens, we will no longer have direct access to 2019 articles (in all Elsevier journals) and the backfiles of certain journals. Everything else that we previously had access to will still be accessible on ScienceDirect. Once the shut off is confirmed, a notice will be published on the Office of Scholarly Communication website.
Background
Last year, UC entered negotiations for a new agreement with Elsevier that would not only continue UC’s access to its online journals, but also achieve the faculty-supported goals of containing journal subscription costs and providing for open access publication of UC research. Unfortunately, in late February the negotiations stalled. In the months since, Elsevier has continued to provide access to new articles via ScienceDirect without a contract in place.
Other Ways to Access Elsevier Articles
The Library is prepared to help you access affected articles. To access articles that are no longer available via ScienceDirect, students, faculty and staff can use tools documented in our alternative access guide including the use of Google Scholar, requesting copies of articles from the corresponding author and requesting articles through the Library.
To learn more about interlibrary loan requests and ways to find open access copies, visit lib.ucsd.edu/interlibrary-loan. If you are in doubt about why you can’t reach a particular article, please contact the Library.
The Library will carefully evaluate the impact to the campus of losing access to new articles on ScienceDirect over the coming months, and we are committed to helping students, faculty and staff get access to the resources they need in other ways. Meanwhile, UC is hoping to reenter formal negotiations with Elsevier if the publisher indicates that they are willing to discuss a contract that addresses UC’s goals.
For continued updates and information on affected content and access, visit lib.ucsd.edu/journal-negotiations.
I appreciate your support and engagement as UC engages in this critical negotiation. Your support as well as the support of the Academic Senate and University Administration has been key in helping us pursue our goals. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to contact me at any time (etm@ucsd.edu).
Erik Mitchell
The Audrey Geisel University Librarian
Related posts
- University of California Reaches Open Access Agreement with Elsevier (March 2021)
- Update on UC’s Open Access Negotiations with Elsevier and Other Publishers (January 2020)
- Access and Publishing Updates: Important Developments That Unfolded This Summer (October 2019)
- Elsevier Access Suspended (July 2019)
- Update on the UC’s Journal Negotiations with Elsevier (March 2019)
- UC Terminates Subscriptions with World’s Largest Scientific Publisher in Push for Open Access to Publicly Funded Research (February 2019)