At Tulane University. Image – Getty iStockphoto: Laser1987
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Tonna: ‘To Contribute to Advancing Knowledge’
The Amsterdam-based Elsevier and Tulane University in New Orleans on Tuesday (February 7) announced a new transformative agreement for reading and publishing.
As our trade-based Publishing Perspectives readers will remember, a “transformative agreement” is a tool used in large-scale contracts to evolve operating and economic models toward open-access frameworks. There now are transformative agreements being announced by major academic publishers such as Elsevier on an almost weekly basis as the transition to open access snowballs.
Transformative agreements are made between publishers and institutions such as libraries and universities to “transform” how content is paid for, specifically transitioning from subscription-based business models to open access. Scholarly Kitchen has a thorough explanation of transformative agreements here.
Elsevier’s transformative agreement with Tulane “will continue to provide access to the same extensive portfolio of ScienceDirect journals,” the publisher says, “that enhance the learning and research experience for the Tulane community while now also supporting all researchers in publishing their research Open Access at no extra cost to the author.”
Tulane students and faculty members will have access to Elsevier’s library of journals and ebooks on its ScienceDirect branded platform.
The agreement also includes support for open-access publishing for Tulane’s research writers.
Andy Corrigan
In a prepared statement, Andy Corrigan, Tulane’s interim dean of libraries, is quoted, saying that the arrangement “expands the scope of our agreement to now include open-access publishing options for our scientific and medical communities.
“This new arrangement accomplishes three important goals.
“It supports public access to grant-funded research, addresses cost sustainability within our library budget, and it increases the university’s overall return on investment in supporting the acquisition of high-quality library resources such as important ScienceDirect journals that are relied upon by our students, faculty and researchers.”
James Tonna
In media messaging, it’s unclear what duration is built into the contract for this agreement.
Speaking for the publisher, its vice-president, James Tonna, says, “Elsevier is committed to supporting Tulane’s open access objectives … to be able to provide Tulane researchers with the tools they need to make important discoveries and contribute to advancing knowledge.”
Elsevier is part of RELX, of course, as our readers know.
Tulane is a private independent research university in Louisiana, established in 1834.
More on Elsevier is here, more on open access is here, more on transformative agreements is here, and more on scholarly and academic publishing is here.