After more than two years of negotiations, in March 2021 the University of California announced a transformative open access agreement with Elsevier, the world’s largest academic publisher, that accomplishes the university’s two goals for all publisher agreements: (1) enabling universal open access to UC research; and (2) containing the excessively high costs associated with licensing journals. This successful outcome was the result of UC’s faculty, librarians and university leadership coming together to stand firm on the goals of making UC research freely available to all and transforming scholarly communication for the better.

The agreement, which went into effect on April 1, 2021, enables UC authors who publish with Elsevier to make their research freely available to the world to read. Through the agreement, the UC libraries provide funding to cover open access publishing fees for UC authors who publish in Elsevier journals by redirecting funds previously devoted to subscription fees.

As of September 1, 2022, this financial support will also be available to UC corresponding authors publishing in Cell Press and The Lancet titles.

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Agreement Basics

What are the basic terms of the agreement?

What about access to other Elsevier materials, like books?

Are Cell Press and The Lancet titles included?

Why did UC enter into this agreement?

Why do we think this model will control costs and promote open access?

Impact for Authors

Am I affected by this agreement?

Who is considered a corresponding author?

Why am I being asked to use grant money?

What if I don't have any grant money? Can I still publish open access with Elsevier?

What types of publications are covered by this agreement?

Which journals are included in the agreement?

If I publish open access under this agreement, will I retain rights/copyright to my own work?

What if I don't want to publish open access? Can I still publish with Elsevier?

If I publish open access under this agreement, do I still need to deposit the article in eScholarship as well?

Can I deposit in eScholarship instead of publishing open access under this agreement?

How does this agreement support my rights as an author and my ability to share my work?

Payment Workflow

If I choose to publish open access, how do payments work?

Can I ask my campus open access fund to cover the balance of the Article Processing Charge?

Resources

Where can I go for more information?

Where can I learn about the background of UC’s negotiations with Elsevier to reach this agreement?

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