Abstract
Jisc Collections has had agreements with open access (OA) publishers since the mid-2000s. In 2014, following the UK government’s response to the Finch Report, it started to target hybrid OA via ‘offsetting agreements’ that covered both subscriptions and article processing charges for OA. This article will provide a status update on OA negotiations in the UK in the context of the UK’s progress towards OA. It will look at some of the concerns about the progress of OA in the UK, how negotiations have evolved in response, and will look at prospects for their future direction. The author presented this paper at the UKSG Annual Conference in Glasgow in April 2018. His co-presenter Anna Lunden and her colleagues give a view from Sweden in this companion Insights article: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.413
Highlights
Whilst Jisc Collections has had agreements with open access (OA) publishers since the mid-2000s, it was in 2014, following the government’s response to the Finch Report, that we started to target hybrid OA via ‘offsetting agreements’ that covered both subscriptions and article processing charges (APCs) for OA
‘negotiations for offsetting agreements were increasingly contentious due to a distrust of hybrid OA’. In this brief article I will provide an update on the status of negotiations, set this against the context of the UK's progress with regard to OA, examine how Jisc Collections has worked with institutions to develop and refine the approach it takes in these negotiations in response to their concerns and, consider the prospects for the future
Open Access Coordination Group monitoring the UK transition to OA suggested that offsetting agreements had acted as a constraint on rises in APCs for hybrid journals.[6]
Summary
Whilst Jisc Collections has had agreements with open access (OA) publishers since the mid-2000s, it was in 2014, following the government’s response to the Finch Report, that we started to target hybrid OA via ‘offsetting agreements’ that covered both subscriptions and article processing charges (APCs) for OA. The article made clear that, because of these challenges, negotiations for offsetting agreements were increasingly contentious due to a distrust of hybrid OA, its attendant costs, workflow and management issues. ‘negotiations for offsetting agreements were increasingly contentious due to a distrust of hybrid OA’. In this brief article I will provide an update on the status of negotiations, set this against the context of the UK's progress with regard to OA, examine how Jisc Collections has worked with institutions to develop and refine the approach it takes in these negotiations in response to their concerns and, consider the prospects for the future.
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