{"id":4004,"date":"2020-06-17T11:28:19","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T15:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/?p=4004"},"modified":"2020-06-17T11:28:19","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T15:28:19","slug":"spotlight-guided-by-open-access-principles-mit-ends-elsevier-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/2020\/spotlight-guided-by-open-access-principles-mit-ends-elsevier-negotiations\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight: Guided by open access principles, MIT ends Elsevier negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Standing by its commitment to provide equitable and open access to scholarship, MIT has ended negotiations with Elsevier for a new journals contract. Elsevier was not able to present a proposal that aligned with the principles of the\u00a0MIT Framework for Publisher Contracts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Developed by the MIT Libraries in collaboration with the\u00a0Ad Hoc Task Force on Open Access to MIT\u2019s Research<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Committee on the Library System<\/a>\u00a0in October 2019, the MIT Framework is grounded in the conviction that openly sharing research and educational materials is key to the Institute\u2019s mission of advancing knowledge and bringing that knowledge to bear on the world\u2019s greatest challenges. It affirms the overarching principle that control of scholarship and its dissemination should reside with scholars and their institutions, and aims to ensure that scholarly research outputs are openly and equitably available to the broadest possible audience, while also providing valued services to the MIT community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am disappointed that we were not able to reach a contract with Elsevier that honors the principles of the MIT Framework, but I am proud knowing that the MIT community \u2014 as well as hundreds of colleagues across the country \u2014 stand by the importance of these principles for advancing the public good and the progress of science,\u201d said Chris Bourg, director of the MIT Libraries. \u201cIn the face of these unprecedented global challenges, equitable and open access to knowledge is more critical than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 100 institutions, ranging from multi-institution consortia to large research universities to liberal arts colleges, decided to endorse the MIT Framework in recognition of its potential to advance open scholarship and the public good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve seen widespread support in all quarters of the MIT community \u2014 faculty, students, postdocs, and staff alike \u2014 for the core grounding of the framework: that the value in published scholarship originates in our work and in the institutions that support us,\u201d says Roger Levy, associate professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and chair of the Committee on the Library System (CLS). \u201cCLS was unanimous in its recommendation to end negotiations. We are publicly committed to supporting the rights of MIT community members to freely share the scholarship we create, and stand by the principles articulated in the MIT Framework in our recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to be able to resume productive negotiations if and when Elsevier is able to provide a contract that reflects our community\u2019s needs and values and advances MIT\u2019s mission,\u201d said Bourg. \u201cIn the meantime, we will continue to use the framework to pursue new paths to achieving open access to knowledge. The groundbreaking agreement we reached with the\u00a0Association for Computing Machinery<\/a>\u00a0in collaboration with the University of California, Carnegie Mellon University, and Iowa State University is one such example of building the business models of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

MIT has long been a leader in open access. Adopted in 2009, the\u00a0MIT Faculty Open Access Policy<\/a>\u00a0was one of the first and most far-reaching initiatives of its kind in the United States. Forty-seven percent of faculty journal articles published since the adoption of the policy are freely available to the world. In 2017, the Institute announced a\u00a0new policy<\/a>\u00a0under which all MIT authors \u2014 including students, postdocs, and staff \u2014 can opt in to an open access license. The Ad Hoc Task Force on Open Access to MIT\u2019s Research, first convened by Provost Martin Schmidt in 2017,\u00a0released its final recommendations<\/a>\u00a0in October 2019. An implementation team, led by Bourg, is working to prioritize and enact the task force\u2019s recommendations, which range from policy to incentives to national and global advocacy.<\/p>\n

Information for the MIT community about access to Elsevier articles can be found on the\u00a0MIT Libraries\u2019 website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(originally published in the MIT News<\/a> on June 11, 2020)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Standing by its commitment to provide equitable and open access to scholarship, MIT has ended negotiations with Elsevier for a new journals contract. Elsevier was not able to present a proposal that aligned with the principles of the\u00a0MIT Framework for Publisher Contracts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Go here to learn more about the negotiations + ways to find Elsevier articles<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":false,"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4004"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4011,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4004\/revisions\/4011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/scholarly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}