UPDATE – January 2, 2020. Contract negotiations are continuing between the SUNY Libraries Consortium (SLC) and Elsevier with the hope of having a resolution in place this Spring. Access to online content in ScienceDirect journal articles remains uninterrupted for current UB faculty, staff and students.
The SUNY Libraries Consortium (SLC) is engaged in active negotiations with Elsevier over the terms of renewal for ScienceDirect, a database of high-quality materials critical for teaching, learning and research. The SUNY-wide subscription to ScienceDirect is set to expire on December 31, 2019.
Elsevier’s pricing stratagem for access to ScienceDirect runs counter to SUNY’s push for affordable education and is increasingly cost-prohibitive for the libraries that support SUNY faculty, staff and students. The cost to UB for access to ScienceDirect is roughly 25% of the University Libraries acquisition budget, a rate structure that is unsustainable.
Although the current contract will expire soon, it is possible negotiations could extend into 2020. With support from the SUNY University Faculty Senate (see Resolution), SUNY is prepared to follow the lead of the University of California and other European universities and decline renewal should Elsevier not lower their costs significantly. If an agreement is not reached by that date, the SLC working group will reach out to Elsevier to continue negotiations.
In preparation, the UB Libraries are currently working on alternative means of access to the scholarly works needed through Delivery+ and interlibrary loan services.
Updates will be forthcoming as we move closer to the contract expiration date.