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Germany Seeks ‘Big Flip’ in Publishing Model
Article

Germany Seeks ‘Big Flip’ in Publishing Model

Consortium hopes to make all German-authored papers open access by paying annual fee

Gretchen Vogel and Kai Kupferschmidt
Science, 2017
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Controversial
  • Scientific
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

Commercial publishers charge libraries big-ticket subscription prices for access. Germany’s “Projekt DEAL” is pushing for open access based on paying publishers an annual lump sum. While Wiley and SpringerNature are close to an agreement, academic publishing giant Elsevier remains fixed in the “pay-per-use” model. Seasoned journalists Gretchen Vogel and Kai Kupferschmidt provide a clear view into Germany’s current negotiations with Elsevier to increase science accessibility. getAbstract recommends this article to those interested in open access.

Summary

What does the “big flip” in academic publishing mean?

Currently, libraries access journal content via subscription fees. A consortium of libraries and universities in Europe aims to replace this paradigm with an open source model. The Netherlands has successfully struck a deal with the academic publisher Elsevier to make 30% of Dutch-authored papers open source by 2018. A German consortium of libraries and universities has been working on similar negotiations for the past two years. Germany aims to replace subscription fees with...

About the Authors

Gretchen Vogel is a journalist with over 20 years of experience. Kai Kupferschmidt studied Molecular Biomedicine and has written for Science  magazine since 2011.

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