Partnership and togetherness – Declarations of unity and collaboration among stakeholders in the scholarly publishing ecosystem have been rare in recent years. In 2019, however, “transformative agreements” between publishers and institutions have made many headlines.
Recorded at Frankfurt Book Fair 2019
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Email | Download
In January 2019, publisher John Wiley & Sons and the German university consortium Projekt DEAL announced a three-year agreement that provides all Projekt DEAL institutions with access to read Wiley’s academic journals back to the year 1997 as well as allows researchers at Projekt DEAL institutions to publish open access articles in Wiley’s journals. A Projekt DEAL representative said, “it is revolutionary that we are taking this path to an open access publication practice together with Wiley.”
Transformative agreements certainly do raise hopes that the divisive debate over open access may be giving way to shared purpose among stakeholders. Yet transformative agreements also raise questions over how they will prove sustainable, practical, equitable and achievable.
At Frankfurt Book Fair earlier this month, two of the principal parties in the Wiley/Projekt DEAL negotiations – Deirdre Silver, Associate General Counsel (Global), VP of Legal, Research for John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and Dr. Ralf Schimmer, Head of Information and Deputy Director of the Max Planck Digital Library – discussed their groundbreaking agreement with CCC’s Chris Kenneally.
Deirdre Silver is Associate General Counsel (Global), VP of Legal, Research for John Wiley & Sons, Inc. She is responsible for all aspects of legal work for Wiley’s global research publishing operations, including participating in shaping strategy, consulting and negotiating with respect to acquisitions, contracts, disputes, and publication ethics, and formulating policy on copyright. She is a member of the Board of the Copyright Clearance Center as well as a member of the STM Intellectual Property Committee.
As Head of Information and Deputy Director, Dr. Ralf Schimmer leads the licensing strategy of the Max Planck Digital Library, serving the 80+ advanced research institutes of the Max Planck Society. A champion of open access in scholarly communications, Dr. Schimmer chaired the Governing Council of SCOAP3 (2014-2016) and is project lead for the Open Access 2020 Initiative. With his team, he is now also operating the German DEAL agreement with Wiley.
In January, Wiley and Projekt DEAL declared their common intention to “support institutions and researchers in advancing open science, driving discovery, and developing and disseminating knowledge.” The revolutionary is becoming the regular, significantly advancing the shift to open access for scholarly journals and dramatically transforming relationships among researchers, universities, funders, and, of course, publishers.
