HRK German Rectors’ Conference
The Voice of the Universities

Project DEAL – nationwide licensing of the products offeredby major academic publishers
Safeguarding adequate provision of up-to-date literature for research and teachinghas been an issue at most research locations in Germany for many years. The
ongoing consolidation among major international academic publishers has
continued to reinforce the market power of providers and has caused prices to risedramatically. Scientific libraries’ budgets for acquisitions have not been able to keep
up for many years; it is a long time since they were able to provide researchers andstudents alike with everything they need.
The objective of the DEAL project is to conclude licensing agreements for theentire range of electronic journals offered by the major academic publishers. The
intention is also to bring about significant change to the status quo in relation tonegotiations, content and pricing in the process. At the same time, it is intended
that an open access component should be implemented, meaning that the costs ofopen access publications borne by the research institutions will be taken into
consideration within the scope of such licences. Several hundred institutions inGermany (such as universities, universities of applied sciences, research institutions,state and regional libraries) have declared their support for signing such licensing
agreements.
At present, expenditure for the three major publishers (Elsevier, Springer Nature andWiley) already ties up around 60 per cent of scientific libraries’ acquisition budgets –and this figure is still rising. A further objective of DEAL is to halt this trend, andregain greater scope for the tailored, user-oriented supply of academic literature.
This would also mean that small and medium-sized publishing houses, in particular,would benefit considerably from the easing of the strain on universities’ andresearch institutions’ acquisition budgets. This will enable smaller publishers toregain a greater share of the market. And, finally, the licensing and pricing models
developed as part of DEAL can also be applied to the signing of corresponding
contracts with other (small and medium) academic publishers.
The intense negotiations that have been under way with Elsevier for several months
are proving to be very difficult. The Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany
published a joint statement at the end of last year
(www.leopoldina.org/uploads/tx_leopublication/Allianz_Verhandlungen_Elsevier_EN.
pdf), in which it called upon the publisher to “present a transparent and long-termoffer and to resume negotiations”. While Elsevier had previously presented an offerto the negotiating team, which includes scientists of very high standing, in the viewof the Alliance the offer did not accord with the principles of open access and fairpricing. Despite its current profit margin of 40 percent, the publisher was still intent
on pursuing price increases even higher than the licence fees paid to date. The
publisher also rejected more transparent business models that are based on
publication and that would make publications more openly accessible.
As a consequence, about 60 scientific institutions had terminated their contracts
with Elsevier with effect as at the end of 2016. The institutions involved are, for theHRK German Rectors’ Conference
The Voice of the Universities

most part, highly regarded major institutions and consortia. This equates to a shareof around one-fifth of Elsevier's estimated annual revenues in the academic journals
sector in Germany. Due to current contracts spanning several years, it was notpossible to terminate all contracts at the end of 2016. Many other institutions
however have already signalled that they will make use of their termination right inthe coming year if no DEAL agreement has been reached by that point. An appeal
by the German Rectors’ Conference to highly respected scientists active on theeditorial boards of Elsevier journals to withdraw from those boards also received agreat response. In the face of the pressure generated by the scientific community,Elsevier has now indicated its willingness to negotiate for the first time in relation toan open access component and to present a pertinent offer.
(Information as of March 2017)

Background information on Project DEAL
The Project DEAL (www.projekt-deal.de/about-deal/) was launched by the Allianceof Science Organisations in Germany on the initiative of the German Rectors’
Conference (HRK). The Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany is a union ofthe most important German research organisations. Members of the Alliance include
the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft(German Research Foundation), the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the German Academic
Exchange Service, the German Council of Science and Humanities, the German
National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the German Rectors’ Conference, theHelmholtz Association of German Research Centres, the Leibniz Association, and theMax Planck Society.
The negotiations with Elsevier for a nationwide licensing agreement are being
conducted under the leadership of the President of the German Rectors’
Conference, Prof. Dr. Horst Hippler.
Exploratory discussions were also held with publishers Springer Nature and Wiley inJanuary 2017, and negotiations will commence shortly.
The business models should also serve as a reference for other publishers. Several
hundred institutions (such as universities, universities of applied sciences, research
institutions, state and regional libraries) have declared their support for signing suchlicensing agreements.