Campus & Community

Libraries Participating in Open Access Pilot

Monday, February 14, 2022, By Cristina Hatem

On Feb. 3, Syracuse University Libraries became a participating institution in the open access pilot agreement between NERL and Elsevier. Syracuse University Libraries is one of 13 NERL libraries, a consortium of America’s leading research institutions, participating in a novel agreement with Elsevier, a global leader in research publishing and information analytics. The three-year agreement provides participating institutions continuing access to the full suite of  Elsevier’s journals (1995 to present) and pilots retroactive open access for articles authored at participating institutions during select intervals prior to 2001.

“The Libraries are pleased to sign onto this groundbreaking new agreement between NERL and Elsevier,” says Scott Warren, Libraries’ associate dean for research excellence. “Its innovative retroactive open access initiative opens five earlier years’ worth of Elsevier articles (previously behind paywalls) for every year the agreement is active is the first of its type ever. Though the Libraries has long provided the University access to this content, with the new agreement, University-authored articles will become much more available worldwide than previously.”

Additionally, “the agreement resulted in significant cost savings the Libraries used to fund many of its open access publishing investments that remove article publishing charges for new University-authored articles,” shares Warren. “The agreement highlights both the Libraries’ dedication to providing campus researchers access to journals they heavily use in a sustainable manner, while also supporting innovative strategies to disseminate University scholarship more widely on a global basis free of charge whenever possible. That’s a win for everyone at Syracuse.”

“By partnering with other leading research university libraries, Syracuse is able to make a greater impact than we could alone,” Warren says. “This deal is proof that collectively the NERL libraries, including Syracuse, are shaping the future.”

For more information on open access publishing, contact your subject librarian.