SUBJECT:

Important Information Regarding the UC Negotiation with Elsevier

University Colleagues:

As you may know, the University of California libraries are currently in negotiations to renew its systemwide licenses with Elsevier, one of the world’s largest scholarly journal publishers. The UC regularly renegotiates scholarly journal publisher contracts with the goals of holding down the rising costs associated with subscriptions and ensuring that our contracts align with UC’s support of open access.

The UC and Elsevier are continuing discussions in January in a good-faith effort to conclude negotiations by January 31, 2019. If an agreement cannot be reached by that date, it is possible that the UC may lose access to some content published in Elsevier’s journals on or shortly after January 31, 2019.

If access is disrupted, articles published from 2019 forward, as well as a limited amount of historical content, would no longer be available directly on Elsevier’s ScienceDirect platform. More information about specific titles impacted is available on the UC Office of Scholarly Communication’s (OSC) site (https://go.ucsd.edu/2CrakKM).

The Library has compiled a guide to alternative access options to ensure that faculty and students have means to access content that is necessary for learning and research. You can find out more about alternative access options at https://ucsd.libguides.com/elsevier. I encourage you to reach out to the Library (http://lib.ucsd.edu/ask-us) with questions you have about access options.

The Library is committed to these negotiations which directly support UC’s mission by facilitating the broadest possible access to UC research results and providing leadership in transforming scholarly publishing into a system that is open, fair and transparent. Throughout this process, the Library has worked closely with the Academic Senate and UC San Diego department chairs, deans and administration. The support we have seen at UC San Diego for this negotiation is mirrored in the faculty at each UC campus. We would like to hear your input regarding these negotiations as well as how we can continue to serve your information needs.

Please join us at our town hall on February 6th from noon - 1 p.m. in Geisel Library’s Seuss Room for an update on negotiations.

For more information regarding our negotiation goals, visit OSC’s Top 3 Things to Know and FAQ pages (https://go.ucsd.edu/2CoIsac).

For continued updates on the status of negotiations and information on affected content and access, visit http://lib.ucsd.edu/journal-negotiations.

Please contact me at etm@ucsd.edu if you have any questions or feedback.

Erik Mitchell The Audrey Geisel University Librarian