Australasian university librarians have teamed up with sector representative bodies to revamp and simplify their open access agreements with major scholarly publishing houses.

Universities Australia and Universities New Zealand (UNZ) have joined forces with the Council of Australasian University Librarians (Caul) to adopt a ¡°unified position¡± in negotiations with Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, and Taylor & Francis.

The four companies are the largest of some 27 publishers that have struck open access agreements with Caul in recent years. All four deals are due for renewal by 2026.

Deakin University librarian Hero Macdonald, who chairs Caul¡¯s content procurement committee, said there was ¡°growing frustration¡± with the current agreements and a ¡°strong desire¡± for ¡°fairer and more transparent value¡±.

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¡°It¡¯s widely established that the power balance sits in¡­favour of commercial publishers. Many are essentially monopolies or oligopolies responsible for unique content, so they¡¯re not actually competing with one another, which introduces some challenging market dynamics.

¡°What we¡¯re trying to do through this approach is¡­not necessarily strengthening our hand, but making sure the objectives Caul is trying to achieve through the negotiations genuinely reflect the shared commitment and priorities of the sector.¡±

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Macdonald said the fees publishers imposed to make articles free to read were based on the costs of producing print journals in 1995. ¡°We¡­want to bring a level of transparency to what we¡¯re paying so that we can actually justify the expense.¡±

Caul¡¯s negotiations in 2021 and 2022 centred around ¡°read and publish¡± deals that wrap open-access publishing charges into institutions¡¯ existing subscriptions. Researchers from universities with journal subscriptions can make their articles open access without incurring extra article processing charges.

But Angus Cook, Caul¡¯s director of content procurement, said many agreements excluded some of the publishers¡¯ journals and imposed limits on the number of freely available papers. Researchers were confused about why they could only publish open access in some journals, and worried that articles they submitted would no longer qualify for open access by the time they were accepted.

¡°Staff spend an enormous amount of time trying to explain the nuances in these business rules,¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯re looking for [a simpler] approach that¡¯s more inclusive and better value for our members.¡±

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Cook said Caul wanted to move from read and publish deals to a ¡°publish-as-a-service¡± model covering each publisher¡¯s entire stable, with no limits on the number of articles that could be made open access. He said the companies¡¯ income from their publishing activities was ¡°financially sustainable enough¡± to support free access for readers, and agreements tied to ¡°specific article volumes¡± risked encouraging them ¡°to publish more for the sake of revenue¡±.

Caul says 2025 will be a ¡°pivotal year¡± to overhaul the agreements. It has established working groups to plan the negotiations and a strategy committee to provide oversight and input from senior academic leaders.

¡°The negotiations offer an important opportunity to establish new models that align more closely with the needs of our sector and the public who fund and benefit from our work,¡± said the committee¡¯s chair, Deakin vice-chancellor Iain Martin.

UNZ¡¯s deputy chief executive, Bronwen Kelly, said taxpayers funded much of the research done by Australasian universities. ¡°We have obligations to make sure that the knowledge we generate is widely and freely available and not hidden behind paywalls.¡±

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john.ross@timeshighereducation.com