Elsevier academic journals: in principle agreement reached

The Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL) has reached an in-principle agreement with global academic publisher Elsevier. 

Starting in 2026, the agreement will include uncapped hybrid open access publishing across the full Elsevier portfolio, including internationally renowned journals such as Cell Press and The Lancet. Gold OA titles are not included in the agreement. 

The Elsevier agreement comes after CAUL, Universities Australia and Universities New Zealand recently announced new agreements with Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis. The agreements mark a substantial shift toward fair, sustainable and transparent access to research across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Kia ora koutou,

In recent months, all New Zealand and Australian universities have been working together to negotiate a better deal with the four largest global academic publishers.

Together, licensing agreements with Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis make up about $30 million in spending annually by New Zealand’s eight universities. That figure doesn’t include the unpaid cost of our researchers serving on editorial boards, writing and peer-reviewing content.

Australian and New Zealand universities have been negotiating since July to obtain new agreements that are more sustainable, transparent and equitable, and which deliver better value for public investment in research.

Key priorities for the negotiations included addressing opaque legacy pricing models and sector-wide inequities, as well as the increasingly unsustainable costs associated with fees for Open Access publishing, and providing greater certainty for authors through better publishing agreements.

Today we write to confirm that negotiations are progressing well with three of the four publishers. A new, landmark, fully uncapped Open Access agreement with Taylor & Francis has been agreed. A positive announcement about a Wiley Open Access publishing agreement is expected in coming weeks. And negotiations with Springer-Nature are continuing.

However, this week the final offer presented by Elsevier made within the negotiating time frame was rejected by the Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL). CAUL remains open to re-engaging with Elsevier, but this means there will be no CAUL contract in place for commencement in 2026, which will affect both read and publish access to ScienceDirect academic journals.

We are deeply disappointed by the position taken by Elsevier.

Cost is part of the issue. The payment to Elsevier is likely one of the largest signed by each Vice-Chancellor to any commercial entity annually. The bill for Elsevier makes up about half of the annual cost of all four of these major publishers.

However, other crucial factors include securing fair access, improving transparency, and supporting a healthy publishing ecosystem that works for Australia and New Zealand. These matters are being reflected in negotiations with the other publishers.  

What this means

When the CAUL Elsevier journal agreement expires on December 31, 2025, Australasian universities will temporarily lose some degree of access to Elsevier’s 1,659 journals until a replacement contract is negotiated either by CAUL or individual institutions.

Negotiations will possibly take months. In similar overseas experiences, negotiations have taken six to 18 months.

Loss of access to these journals will have varying levels of impact on researchers and students in 2026.

Each university library is making contingency arrangements for their staff and students. The specific impact at each of our universities will vary depending on the conditions of the existing contract.

We acknowledge that this will likely create some disruption and uncertainty, and will impact our university communities. However, we believe this is an opportunity to continue to advocate for new models that align more closely with the needs of our sector and the public who fund and benefit from our work.

Ngā mihi nui,

Professor Grant Edwards, UNZ chair, Vice-Chancellor Lincoln University
Professor Neil Quigley, UNZ deputy chair, Vice-Chancellor University of Waikato
Professor Dawn Freshwater, UNZ Research Committee chair, Vice-Chancellor University of Auckland
Professor Cheryl de la Rey, UNZ Education Committee chair, Vice-Chancellor University of Canterbury
Professor Damon Salesa, UNZ International Committee chair, Vice-Chancellor AUT
Professor Nic Smith, Vice-Chancellor Victoria University of Wellington
Professor Jan Thomas, Vice-Chancellor Massey University
Mr Grant Robertson, Vice-Chancellor University of Otago