DEAL negotiations and contracts for nationwide journal licenses and Open Access publication facilities for journals of the publishers Wiley, SpringerNature and Elsevier
For many years, universities have been burdened with immense costs in obtaining literature through disproportionate price increases by publishers (especially in the field of journals).
The underlying principle is that publicly funded research on subscriptions and licenses must be "bought back" with public funds, so that this knowledge is available at universities for research and teaching. This system can no longer be financed without fundamental changes.
That is why the Alliance of German Science Organizations, under the auspices of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK), has launched the DEAL project.
What are the DEAL negotiations and contracts about?
In 2016, a large majority of the organizations in the Alliance of German Scientific Organizations (including the CAU) have given the DEAL Project Group a mandate to negotiate with the publishers Elsevier, SpringerNature and Wiley in order to achieve a significant improvement in the status quo.
The main demands on the publishers for a beginning system change in the information supply are:
- Permanent full-text access to the entire journal title portfolio of publishers
- Open Access for all articles by authors at German institutions (license CC-BY, including peer review)
- Reasonable pricing according to a simple, future-oriented calculation model based on the publication volume ("Publish and Read")
- Eligibility of approximately 600 publicly funded educational and research institutions
Under the leadership of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK), the DEAL project group has been negotiating on nationwide licenses that meet the aforementioned requirements with the publisher Elsevier since mid-2016 and with publishers SpringerNature and Wiley since the beginning of 2017.
DEAL contract with Wiley
The most important things for CAU members in a nutshell:
- Reading access to about 1,600 subscription journals of the Wiley publishing house in the university network of the CAU
- Open access publication option in most of Wiley's journals for all CAU scientists including UKSH Campus Kiel with central funding and thus without additional costs for the authors
- To do so, simply select the open access option offered in the publication process at a Wiley journal. The request is automatically submitted to the UB for verification of the authorization.
The details:
On November 17, 2023, the DEAL consortium concluded the 2nd DEAL contract with Wiley. The DEAL license agreement continues the transformation process away from subscription-based licensing models towards a model based on publication fees, the principles of open access and fairer pricing.
The CAU has joined the contract.
The content of the contract is a Publish & Read model, in which participating institutions (approximately 700 universities and research institutes in Germany) have permanent access to approximately 1,600 subscriptions-based e-journals of Wiley back to 1997 for an annual fee (i.e. with direct connection to the older volumes of the long-standing national licenses available). The CAU previously had access to only about 200 Wiley journals.
In addition, all CAU researchers including UKSH Campus Kiel can publish their articles as Responsible Corresponding Authors in most of the aforementioned subscriptions-based Wiley journals Open Access at no additional cost, so that the articles are freely accessible worldwide from day one.
Added to this is the opportunity for all CAU scientists including UKSH Campus Kiel to publish articles in additional 110 original Gold Open Access journals of the Wiley publishing house, the costs of which are also borne by the CAU and no longer by the individual authors.
This assumption of costs includes the basic APC, but not fees for additional services such as translations, image editing or overlengths.
During the publication process, Wiley authors are made aware of the Open Access capability of DEAL and can select the option. The Open Access request is automatically submitted to the University Library (UB) by Wiley for reviewing the authorization (the authors do not have to do anything themselves) and are usually decided in a few days. Authors will be automatically informed of the decision by Wiley. Sometimes it may come to questions of the UB to the authors, which are usually for clarification in regards to the authorization.
Information about the DEAL contract with Wiley:
Project DEAL: Wiley contract
DEAL contract with SpringerNature
The most important things for CAU members in a nutshell:
- Reading access to about 1,900 subscription journals of the SpringerNature publishing house in the university network of the CAU
- Open access publication option in most of SpringerNature's journals for all CAU scientists including UKSH Campus Kiel with central funding and thus without additional costs for the authors
- To do so, simply select the open access option offered in the publication process at a Wiley journal. The request is automatically submitted to the UB for verification of the authorization.
The details:
On November 24, 2023, the DEAL consortium concluded the 2nd DEAL contract with Wiley. The DEAL license agreement continues the transformation process away from subscription-based licensing models towards a model based on publication fees, the principles of open access and fairer pricing.
The CAU has joined the contract.
The content of the contract is a Publish & Read model, in which participating institutions (approximately 700 universities and research institutes in Germany) have permanent access to approximately 1,900 subscriptions-based e-journals of SpringerNature back to 1997 for an annual fee (i.e. with direct connection to the older volumes of the long-standing national licenses available). The CAU previously had access to only about 1,100 SpringerNature journals.
In addition, all CAU researchers including UKSH Campus Kiel can publish their articles as Corresponding Authors in most of the aforementioned subscriptions-based SpringerNature journals Open Access at no additional cost, so that the articles are freely accessible worldwide from day one.
Added to this is the opportunity for all CAU scientists including UKSH Campus Kiel to publish articles in additional 270 original Gold Open Access journals of the SpringerNature publishing house, the costs of which are also borne by the CAU and no longer by the individual authors.
This assumption of costs includes the basic APC, but not fees for additional services such as translations, image editing or overlengths.
During the publication process, SpringerNature authors are made aware of the Open Access capability of DEAL and can select the option. The Open Access request is automatically submitted to the University Library (UB) by SpringerNature for reviewing the authorization (the authors do not have to do anything themselves) and are usually decided in a few days. Authors will be automatically informed of the decision by SpringerNature. Sometimes it may come to questions of the UB to the authors, which are usually for clarification in regards to the authorization.
Information about the DEAL contract with SpringerNature:
DEAL contract with Elsevier
The most important things for CAU members in a nutshell:
- Reading access to about 1,850 subscription journals of the Elsevier publishing house (including Cell Press) in the university network of the CAU
- Open access publication option in most of Elsevier's journals for all CAU scientists including UKSH Campus Kiel with central funding and thus without additional costs for the authors
- To do so, simply select the open access option offered in the publication process at a Wiley journal. The request is automatically submitted to the UB for verification of the authorization.
The details:
The DEAL project achieved conclusion of DEAL-contract with the publishing house Elsevier on September 1st 2020. The DEAL license agreement initiates a transformation process away from subscription-based licensing models to a model based on publication fees, the principles of open access and fair pricing.
The CAU has joined the contract.
The content of the contract is a Publish & Read model, in which participating institutions (approximately 700 universities and research institutes in Germany) have permanent access to approximately 1,850 subscriptions-based e-journals of Elsevier back to 1995 (i.e. with direct connection to the older volumes of the long-standing national licenses available).
In addition, all CAU researchers including UKSH Campus Kiel can publish their articles as Submitting Corresponding Authors in most of the aforementioned subscriptions-based Elsevier journals Open Access at no additional cost, so that the articles are freely accessible worldwide from day one.
Added to this is the opportunity for all CAU scientists including UKSH Campus Kiel to publish articles in additional 660 original Gold Open Access journals of the Elsevier publishing house, the costs of which are also borne by the CAU and no longer by the individual authors.
This assumption of costs includes the basic APC, but not fees for additional services such as translations, image editing or overlengths.
During the publication process, Elsevier authors are made aware of the Open Access capability of DEAL and can select the option. The Open Access request is automatically submitted to the University Library (UB) by Elsevier for reviewing the authorization (the authors do not have to do anything themselves) and are usually decided in a few days. Authors will be automatically informed of the decision by Elsevier. Sometimes it may come to questions of the UB to the authors, which are usually for clarification in regards to the authorization.
Information about the DEAL contract with Elsevier:
Additional Open Access transformative agreements
CAU has concluded further Open Access transformation agreements with the following publishers:
These agreements include:
- Reading Access to the most
- Open access publication option in most of these publishers subscription journals for all CAU scientists including UKSH Campus Kiel with central funding and thus without additional costs for the authors.
- During the publication process, the authors are made aware of the Open Access capability by the publisher and can select the option. The Open Access request is automatically submitted to the University Library (UB) by the publishers for reviewing the authorization (the authors do not have to do anything themselves) and are usually decided in a few days. Authors will be automatically informed of the decision by the publishers.
Contact persons for DEAL and Open Access transformation aggreements at Kiel University
If you have any questions or need further advice regarding DEAL-project and Open Access publishing facilities, please contact:
