Big Deals in Europe

The European University Association (EUA) has published its latest mapping of major scholarly publishing contracts in Europe. The data is taken from 31 consortia and covers 167 contracts with five major publishers:

• American Chemical Society
• Elsevier
• Springer Nature
• Taylor and Francis
• Wiley

The report explores how Big Deal negotiations are organised at national level, the OA terms featured, and the costs of Big Deals. 

Key findings

• Most of the European countries surveyed have a national Open Access strategy or policy (68%). However, 55% of the current Big Deal contracts reported do not include any specific Open Access provisions.
• 87% of consortia report their negotiation strategies and process have changed to take into account the ‘paradigm shift’ of OA. They are increasingly looking for more openness and transparency in negotiations and seeing other partners being included in negotiation processes (including funders, university leadership etc). They recognise that negotiation process will become more complex and take longer
• Only 19% of consortia reported that subscription costs and Article Processing Charges (APCs) were included in the same contractual framework. However, 65% of consortia expressed their wish that both costs could be included under a single contract, with suggested benefits including helping accelerate OA; improving administrative processes; helping to control or reduce costs
• The 31 consortia reported a total annual spend of €726,350,945 on periodicals Big Deals (not just the five publishers featured in this report)
• The proportion of these costs covered by universities is about 72% (€519,973,578).

The full report can be read here: Full Text Report