Project DEAL

Project DEAL

As part of the DEAL project, the German Rectors' Conference (HRK), on behalf of the Alliance of German Science Organisations, negotiates with the three major science publishers Elsevier, Springer Nature and Wiley on nationwide licences for their electronic journals.

The negotiation goals:

  • The DEAL institutions have permanent full-text access to the entire title portfolio (e-journals) of the selected publishers.
  • All scientists from participating institutions in Germany will have the opportunity to publish their research results directly in the journals of their choice under a free licence (Open Access).
  • Appropriate pricing according to a simple, future-oriented calculation model based on the volume of publications.

In particular, the individual institutions should be relieved financially and access to scientific literature for science should be improved. Otherwise, the price increases of the last few years in this segment threaten to lead to supply restrictions in the individual institutions.

Contact

Insa Züchner

Essen campus, R09 T00 L88
+49 (0) 201 183 3695
Duisburg campus, LK119
+49 (0) 203 379 2083

Elsevier

In September 2023, Elsevier and the German Rectors' Conference announced the successful conclusion of negotiations for a DEAL agreement. On 29.11.2023, the UDE Rectorate decided to join the agreement with retroactive effect from 01.09.2023. The agreement runs until the end of 2028.

Key points of the agreement include:

  • permanent reading access to around 1.800 Elsevier journals and around 50 journals from Cell Press and The Lancet,
  • Open Access publication option for UDE corresponding authors in these hybrid journals (retroactively from 01.09.2023),
  • centrally administered publishing in around 660 Gold Open Access journals retroactively from 01.09.2023, with a 20% discount on the list price of Article Processing Charges (APCs) for Elsevier Core journals and 15% for Cell Press and The Lancet Gold OA Journals.

The Publish & Read fees for read access and OA publishing in hybrid journals as well as the APCs for publications in Gold Open Access journals for 2023 will be financed retroactively from September and centrally for 2024. The University Library is responsible for processing the invoices.

A current overview of all magazines covered by the contract can be found here.

Springer Nature

The second DEAL agreement was signed on 24.11.2023, which follows on from the one from 2020 to 2023. The new agreement will run until the end of 2028. The UDE Rectorate decided to join the agreement on 25.01.2024.

The key points of the agreement include:

  • permanent reading access to around 2,000 journals from the Springer, Palgrave, Adis and Macmillan portfolios as well as OA publishing in these hybrid journals,
  • centrally administered publishing in Gold Open Access journals, with a 20% discount on the list price of Article Processing Charges for BioMed Central and SpringerOpen journals.

The publish-and-read component does not include Nature and Nature branded journals or purely specialist journals and magazines such as ATZ and MTZ as well as Scientific American or Spektrum der Wissenschaft, for which there will continue to be separate contracts.

The Publish & Read fees and therefore the costs for OA publishing in hybrid journals will continue to be financed centrally for 2024, as will the APCs for publications in Gold Open Access journals.

A current overview of all magazines covered by the contract can be found here.

Please note that the central funding of OA publishing by the university applies to the publication models "Fully Open Access" and "Hybrid (Open Choice)", but not to a limited number of titles in the publication model "Hybrid (Third Party)" and "Subscription-only".

Wiley

The second DEAL agreement was signed on November 17, 2023. It directly follows on from the first, which runs until the end of 2023 following an interim extension from 2019. The follow-up agreement will run until the end of 2028. The UDE Rectorate decided to join the agreement on 25.01.2024.

The contract offers access to the complete journal portfolio of the publisher Wiley with archive rights back to 1997 as well as a comprehensive open access component. All articles by Submitting Corresponding Authors from the participating institutions will be published in Open Access with the authors' consent - both in the original Open Access journals and in Wiley's subscription titles (see: information for authors).

The costs are made up of two components: a Publish & Read fee, which covers OA publications in subscription titles and read access to the journal portfolio, and the Article Processing Charges for publications in Gold Open Access journals. The costs for 2024 will continue to be financed centrally.

A current overview of all magazines covered by the contract can be found here.

Please note that OA publishing is not possible for a limited number of subscription titles (revenue model = SUBS).