Elsevier and the University of Florida Sign Pilot Agreement to Support Open Access Publishing and Research

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Jul 01, 2020, 09:00 ET

AMSTERDAM, July 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida (UF) and Elsevier, a global leader in research publishing and information analytics, have agreed to a new pilot program to support open access (OA) publishing at UF.

The agreement will support UF's open access goals by providing the university's researchers with incentives to publish OA articles. It also presents the opportunity to better understand researcher behavior and to learn from the resulting data—helping progress OA at UF and beyond. The pilot agreement is an amendment to the existing licensing agreement UF currently has with Elsevier. The new pilot agreement will take effect July 1, 2020.

"I sought a transformative agreement that would benefit UF authors choosing to publish open access articles in Elsevier journals, and Elsevier listened! The agreement provides a discount for corresponding authors publishing open access articles in most Elsevier open access and hybrid journals. It is applied automatically, so UF authors do not have to do any extra work to benefit from it. We are looking forward to working with Elsevier to learn from this pilot project and hope it can be expanded to authors at additional universities in the future," said Judy Russell, Dean of University Libraries at the University of Florida.

Gino Ussi, Executive Vice President, Elsevier, said: "We are excited to further strengthen our relationship with the University of Florida and to support them towards achieving their open access ambitions. Over the years, UF has been a fantastic partner and this pilot is no exception; it presents an opportunity to work collaboratively with our customer towards a shared goal, something that we welcome at any point in time. We look forward to working closely with them as we test and learn from this pilot to enhance open access offerings in the future."

The University of Florida (UF) is a major, comprehensive, land-grant, sea-grant, research university, ranked #7 among public universities by US News and World Report in 2020.

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.

About the University of Florida

The state's oldest and most comprehensive university, UF is among the nation's most academically diverse public universities and won the 2018 Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization. In 2013 the Florida Legislature designated UF as the state's preeminent institution which grew into an opportunity to achieve national and international recognition for the University's work in serving students and the world. It is one of only 17 public, land-grant universities that belong to the Association of American Universities. www.ufl.edu

About The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida

The Libraries at the University of Florida form the largest information resource system in the state of Florida with seven libraries and two off-campus facilities. The George A. Smathers Libraries comprise six of the campus libraries and the off-site facilities, and the Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center is part of the Levin College of Law. The Smathers Libraries have built a number of nationally significant research collections, including the Latin American and Caribbean, Judaica, Florida History, Children's Literature, and Maps and Imagery collections. The Libraries are a member of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) and other library consortia. uflib.ufl.edu

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. www.elsevier.com