Elsevier

1.09.2023-31.12.2028

The transformative Open Access agreement with Elsevier is the third to be concluded by the DEAL Consortium. With around 11,000 publications per year in Elsevier journals, the agreement is of central importance for the German scientific landscape and the open availability of its research results.

Around 900 institutions in Germany are eligible to participate, including universities, research organisations, federal and state research institutions, government departments and agencies, and many more.

Services under agreement

Open Access Publishing

  • Authors from participating institutions with submitting corresponding author status publish Open Access articles in more than 2,500 Elsevier journals, including Cell Press and The Lancet journals.

  • Participating institutions receive a 20% discount on the list price of Article Processing Charges (APCs) for Elsevier Fully Gold journals and a 15% discount on the list price of Fully Gold Cell Press and The Lancet journals.

Reading access

  • Participating institutions receive access rights to almost the entire Elsevier journal portfolio, including the Cell Press and The Lancet titles (see list of journal titles). Access to journal content published during the years of the agreement remains permanently available to the participating institution (perpetual access).

  • The agreement enables MPDLS gGmbH, subject to the availability of appropriate (third-party) funding, to purchase a journal archive to ensure permanent access to Elsevier content until 2022 for the consortium and the institutions entitled to a national licence at no additional cost and independently of the DEAL agreement. However, this is subject to the availability of appropriate funding.

Pricing Model

  • Paper Charge Model: Participating institutions will pay a Publish and Read Fee (PAR Fee) or an Article Processing Charge (APC), as specified in the contract, for each publication in Elsevier's Core Hybrid and Fully Gold journals by submitting corresponding authors assigned to their institution. All fees incurred will be invoiced to the participating institutions by MPDL Services gGmbH.

  • The PAR Fee for publications in Core Hybrid journals is €2,550 net. In the case of a high participation rate (more than 90% of the German publication volume in Elsevier journals in 2022 is covered by the participating institutions), the PAR fee will be reduced by 2% to €2,500 net. In both cases, the PAR fee is subject to an annual increase of 3% from 2025.

  • For publications in Cell Press and The Lancet hybrid journals, the APC is €6,450 net. It is subject to an annual increase of 4% from 2025.

  • For publications in Elsevier's Fully Gold Open Access journals, the APCs are calculated according to the list prices charged to participating institutions minus the agreed discounts (see above).