CRKN Signs Read-and-Publish Agreement with Elsevier

The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) is pleased to announce that we have signed a new three-year, read-and-publish agreement with Elsevier. As part of CRKN’s commitment to transform access to research, this agreement repurposes funds that CRKN members have traditionally paid in subscription fees for Elsevier journals, to cover open access publishing and full reading access for those same journals.

Corresponding authors at participating member institutions will benefit from unlimited open access publishing in more than 1,800 Elsevier hybrid journals at no cost to the author (i.e., with no article processing charge (APC)). This agreement has the potential to result in the publication of more than 9,000 open access articles by Canadian authors per year throughout its duration. Through this read-and-publish agreement, CRKN members have leveraged their collective negotiating power to support the Canadian research community. By covering the cost of open access publishing in this agreement, CRKN members are unlocking a significant volume of Canadian research publications, while ensuring that research funding can cover researcher needs rather than publishing costs.

CRKN’s Content Strategy Committee (CSC) is entrusted with the task of negotiating terms that meet the needs of CRKN members while ensuring optimal value. To guide this process, the CSC adheres to CRKN’s Licensing Principles and develops negotiation objectives informed by member feedback. In this case, member feedback indicated that the agreement must remain cost-neutral for libraries and should include no restriction on the number of articles eligible for publication.

“We are very pleased to have negotiated an agreement that will have such a large impact on making Canadian research openly available and meet the objectives of our members,” commented Denise LaFitte, CSC Chair and Acting Vice-Provost (Library & Museums) and Chief Librarian, University of Alberta. “With continued engagement and support from members, the CSC was able to ensure that this agreement would allow for unlimited open access publishing and contain costs for members.”

CRKN is grateful to our members and the CSC for their guidance throughout this read-and-publish negotiation process. We also wish to thank the Elsevier negotiating team for their willingness to collaborate on an agreement that strengthens the research community in Canada.

Through signing this read-and-publish agreement, CRKN and our member institutions demonstrate our commitment to transform scholarly communications by empowering Canadian researchers and creating a future where knowledge is accessible to all.

The term of this agreement is from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2026, and the agreement includes 73 participating institutions.

For more information, the complete read-and-publish agreement is available on the CRKN website. Additional information about this agreement's open access publishing component and the eligible titles can be found on the Open Access Publishing page of the CRKN website.