• Read & Let Read: An Alternative to the Transformative Agreement

    Author(s):
    Arthur Boston (see profile)
    Date:
    2021
    Group(s):
    Library & Information Science
    Subject(s):
    Scholarly publishing, Open access publishing
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    transformative agreements, big deals, commercial publishing, article processing charge., Scholarly communication, Academic publishing, Open access
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/g9r4-4n39
    Abstract:
    In March 2021, the University of California (UC) and Elsevier announced a new so-called “transformative agreement” that included slightly discounted article processing charges as UC’s route to open access in Elsevier journals. Librarians and researchers expressed immediate concern that this deal upheld inequities in the research system. The UC/Elsevier deal, however, is just one of many that include expensive pay-to-publish structures. This commentary proposes an alternative contract between libraries and publishers that would enable wider reading and lower costs, called Read & Let Read. The three main points of a Read & Let Read deal include a half-dollar valuation of individual journal articles, prepayment on a university’s estimated usage, and an equal payment made for usage outside of the university. If a Read & Let Read deal were implemented at UC, UC would pay a slightly higher amount of money to Elsevier than they are expected to at present, and they would not flip any articles to open access. Instead, they would contribute toward a more equitably distributed system of scholarly readership.
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Journal article    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    Attribution
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