Page History
Find current information on FinELib negotiations below, or check what is this all about: what do we aim at, and what is under negotiations?
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Research deserves open access - Let's do it now! (28.9.2016)
Research results should be accessible to all, in order to fully benefit researchers and the society as a whole. Currently a big part of the established, esteemed scholarly journals are open only to subscribers. Open availability of research requires that also articles in subscription journals must be turned into open access. This can be done by transition from subscription model to open access model. Transition from subscription to open access is an important topic in FinELib’s renegotiations on journal subscription deals. With negotiations Finland is taking part in a strong worldwide movement towards open access (see e.g. OA2020 - initiative for the large-scale transition to open access).
Since starting current negotiations, FinELib has seen that publishers have different ways of approaching open access issues. Some publishers need to be reassured about moving towards open access, while others already have models for the transition. New models need testing and probably also modifications. It is however important that all new OA models make researcher's work easier, not more complicated. New OA models also need to be cost effective to Finnish research community.
Open access is a goal which benefits from shared experiences and shared vision. In June we had a chat with Dr. Ralf Shimmer, a well-known open access advocate from the Max Planck institute. Watch the interview below for his view on why open access is now more relevant than ever.
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Access to scholarly journals – at what cost? (19.9.2016)
FinELib negotiations are ongoing and the big questions – price and open access - are on the table (more information about our goals here). FinELib has presented the difficult financial situation in research organizations to publishers, but the renewal offers haven't so far reflected the severeness of the situation.
To get a clear idea of why price is an essential issue in these negotiations, please see the graph below, which compares university index with the cost development of the five largest e-journal packages subscribed via FinELib (2011 = 100). University index is a tool which is meant to keep universities’ basic funding up-to-date with inflation. However, since its introduction in 2011, the index has mainly been frozen by Finnish government, which means that budgets have been eaten by inflation for several years. At the same time, the costs for the five largest e-journal packages have increased by 25%. It has been getting harder and harder to accommodate these levels of price increases, which is why current negotiations are very important.
