Irish higher education institutions and Elsevier sign a pilot transformative agreement to support open access for research in Ireland

Dublin, February 18, 2020 – A consortium of publicly-funded Irish higher education institutions and

Elsevier

, a global leader in information analytics specializing in science and health, have agreed the country’s first open access program with a major scientific publisher towards the goal of full open access to Irish research publications.

The three-year agreement means Irish researchers from 19 institutions will have access to the entire Freedom Collection of 16 million publications from 2,500 journals published by Elsevier and its society partners on

ScienceDirect

, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature. The agreement also facilitates a transition to open access and enables Irish researchers to publish more than 70 percent of their research without having to pay an Article Publishing Charge (APC).

Cathal McCauley, Co-Chair of the Irish Consortium, said: “Our agreement with Elsevier is a significant step towards our ultimate goal of achieving 100 percent open access for Irish research, in the shortest possible time. It will enable the latest research to be available to all, at the point of publication. We look forward to working closely with Elsevier to use the data gathered from this trial, to improve their OA offering in future agreements.”

Elsevier is one of the world’s leading subscription and open access publishers, enabling researchers to stay up-to-date with the latest findings in science, technology and health from around the world.

Gino Ussi, Executive Vice President, Elsevier, said: “We’re delighted to have concluded this new national agreement in Ireland and we look forward to continuing to support the Irish research community in advancing its ambitious goals. Elsevier is committed to empowering knowledge and remains one of the fastest growing open access publishers in the world, with a 40 percent increase in articles published in this way in 2019 than the previous year.”

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About the Consortium of Irish higher education institutions

The Consortium consists of seven universities, eleven institutes of technology and Technological University Dublin. The Consortium’s work has been in collaboration with

IReL

(the Irish Research e-Library Consortium),

IUA

(the Irish Universities Association) and

THEA

(the Technological Higher Education Association).

The consortium members are:

• Athlone Institute of Technology
• Cork Institute of Technology
• Dublin City University
• Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design + Technology
• Dundalk Institute of Technology
• Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
• Institute of Technology, Carlow
• Institute of Technology, Sligo
• Institute of Technology, Tralee
• Letterkenny Institute of Technology
• Limerick Institute of Technology
• Maynooth University
• National University of Ireland, Galway
• Technological University Dublin
• Trinity College Dublin
• University College Cork
• University College Dublin
• University of Limerick
• Waterford Institute of Technology

About Elsevier

Elsevier

is a global information analytics business that helps scientists and clinicians to find new answers, reshape human knowledge, and tackle the most urgent human crises. For 140 years, we have partnered with the research world to curate and verify scientific knowledge. Today, we’re committed to bringing that rigor to a new generation of platforms. Elsevier provides digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and professional education; including

ScienceDirect

,

Scopus

,

SciVal

,

ClinicalKey

and

Sherpath

. Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitized journals, including


The Lancet


and


Cell


, 39,000 e-book titles and many iconic reference works, including


Gray’s Anatomy


. Elsevier is part of

RELX

, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

http://www.

com

Media contacts

Cathal McCauley, University Librarian, Co-Chair of the Irish Consortium

Maynooth University

+353 1 708 38 81


[email protected]

Andrew Davis, Global Communications

Elsevier

+44 7393 242 466


[email protected]