SUBJECT:

Elsevier to Restrict Access to Journals

University Colleagues:

As you may know, the University of California (UC) has been out of
contract with the publisher Elsevier since January but, so far, the
publisher has continued to provide access to new articles via
ScienceDirect. Although Elsevier has not yet provided us with official
notification, we now have reason to believe that the publisher will shut
off that direct access in the first half of July, after the July 4
holiday.

When that happens, we will no longer have direct access to 2019 articles
(in all Elsevier journals) and the backfiles of certain journals. A list
of impacted journals can be found at:
https://ucsd.libguides.com/elsevier.

Everything else that we previously had access to will still be
accessible on ScienceDirect. Once the shut off is confirmed, a notice
will be published on the Office of Scholarly Communication website:
https://go.ucsd.edu/2CoIsac.

Background

Last year, UC entered negotiations for a new agreement with Elsevier
that would not only continue UC's access to its online journals, but
also achieve the faculty-supported goals of containing journal
subscription costs and providing for open access publication of UC
research (https://go.ucsd.edu/2GYvwfH). Unfortunately, in late February
the negotiations stalled. In the months since, Elsevier has continued to
provide access to new articles via ScienceDirect without a contract in
place.

Other Ways to Access Elsevier Articles

The Library is prepared to help you access affected articles. To access
articles that are no longer available via ScienceDirect, students,
faculty and staff can use tools documented in our alternative access
guide (https://ucsd.libguides.com/elsevier) including the use of Google
Scholar, requesting copies of articles from the corresponding author and
requesting articles through the Library.

If you are in doubt about why you can't reach a particular article,
please contact the Library at
https://library.ucsd.edu/ask-us/email-a-librarian.html.

To learn more about interlibrary loan requests and ways to find open
access copies, visit http://lib.ucsd.edu/interlibrary-loan.

The Library will carefully evaluate the impact to the campus of losing
access to new articles on ScienceDirect over the coming months, and we
are committed to helping students, faculty and staff get access to the
resources they need in other ways. Meanwhile, UC is hoping to reenter
formal negotiations with Elsevier if the publisher indicates that they
are willing to discuss a contract that addresses UC's goals.

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

I appreciate your support and engagement as UC engages in this critical
negotiation. Your support as well as the support of the Academic Senate
and University Administration has been key in helping us pursue our
goals. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to
contact me at any time (etm@ucsd.edu).

Erik Mitchell The Audrey Geisel University Librarian