
Negotiators for Norwegian research institutions have rejected an offer from academic publisher Elsevier to maintain access to new content from its journals.
Unit, an administrative office of the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, announced on 12 March that it had decided not to renew an agreement between Norwegian research institutions and the company, one of the world’s largest academic publishers. The office has been leading negotiations on behalf of 44 universities and other institutes, with the backing of the Universities Norway association.
Although it did not disclose the details, Unit said that the offer tabled by Elsevier was “a long way” from meeting Norwegian requirements for transitioning from a subscription agreement to open-access publishing. The country’s government wants all publicly funded scientific articles to be open access by 2024.