Elsevier and Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources agree on proposal for subscription framework with measures to support Open Access goals

TOKYO, Nov. 18, 2020  /PRNewswire/ -- The Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources (JUSTICE) and Elsevier, a global leader in research publishing and information analytics, have successfully reached agreement on a new three-year proposal for subscription publishing with measures to support Japan's open access (OA) goals, beginning January 1, 2021.

This is the first such agreement for Elsevier in Japan and the Asia Pacific region.

Based on this proposal, member universities affiliated with JUSTICE have the choice to choose from the subscription proposal and the proposal to promote Gold OA. The Gold OA proposal aims to reduce the financial burden of authors wishing to publish OA while continuing to provide access to ScienceDirect, Elsevier's leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature. This allows researchers from these universities access to 16 million publications from over 2,500 journals¹ published by Elsevier and its society partners.

In addition, Elsevier and JUSTICE have worked together to provide options for more than 500 Japanese institutions and their researchers to support national goals around green OA and offer incentives to support open access publishing across Elsevier journals.

Mr. Seiji Hosokawa, Chair of the JUSTICE Steering Committee, said: "We are pleased that Elsevier has made an offer that's aligned with the JUSTICE OA 2020 roadmap for us to reach an agreement. We see the agreement of the proposal as a small step for us, but one that we hope will lead to a major leap forward in promoting open access in Japan."

Gino Ussi, Executive Vice President, Elsevier, added: "We have worked closely with JUSTICE and its member universities to understand their research and open access goals, resulting in our new proposal for a framework that supports a broad set of needs. We are delighted to continue our longstanding partnership and continue to evolve our offerings in line with the priorities of the Japanese research community."

As a global leader in research publishing, and information and analytics, Elsevier helps researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. We've built a wide-ranging portfolio of OA publishing options for authors and researchers across all subject areas. Nearly all our journals already offer immediate open access options and we are committed to finding a sustainable path so we can extend this to all our titles. Our agreement that supports JUSTICE's open access goals is another example of the many tailored pilot or transformative agreements we've similarly established with other universities and consortia around the world, supporting open access. Each of these agreements are tailored to the specific needs of our partners, ranging from reading and publishing services, to broader areas such as reproducibility, transparency and collaboration in research. Our aim is to test and learn, to better understand how we can support all our customers' differing needs.

Notes to editors
¹ The list of accessible journals titles varies with individual contract signed.

About Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources
Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources (JUSTICE) is a consortium created to promote many activities for providing stably and continuously academic information, including e-journal that is essential for education and research activities of the university in Japan. The mission assigned to JUSTICE is to contribute to the enhancement of the nation's academic information infrastructure by contracting, managing, providing, and preserving e-resources and by training personnel with necessary skills. JUSTICE was established in April 2011 with the support of the National Institute of Informatics (NII). At present, JUSTICE is comprised of over 500 participating libraries and is the nation's largest organization of library consortia. www.nii.ac.jp/content/justice_en

About Elsevier
As a global leader in information and analytics, Elsevier helps researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. We do this by facilitating insights and critical decision-making for customers across the global research and health ecosystems.

In everything we publish, we uphold the highest standards of quality and integrity. We bring that same rigor to our information analytics solutions for researchers, health professionals, institutions and funders.

Elsevier employs 8,100 people worldwide. We have supported the work of our research and health partners for more than 140 years. Growing from our roots in publishing, we offer knowledge and valuable analytics that help our users make breakthroughs and drive societal progress. Digital solutions such as ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey and Sherpath support strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and health education. Researchers and healthcare professionals rely on our 2,500+ digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell; our 39,000 eBook titles; and our iconic reference works, such as Gray's Anatomy. With the Elsevier Foundation and our external Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board, we work in partnership with diverse stakeholders to advance inclusion and diversity in science, research and healthcare in developing countries and around the world.

Elsevier is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. www.elsevier.com

Media contact
Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources (JUSTICE) Secretariat Office
justice-help@nii.ac.jp (Member Support Contacts)
justice-pubhelp@nii.ac.jp (Vendor Contacts)

Jason Chan, Director
Elsevier Communications, APAC
+65 6349 02 40
j.chan@elsevier.com