The University of Oregon Libraries, working together with librarians from Oregon State University and Portland State University, has initiated contract negotiations with the company Elsevier, a publisher and global provider of information and analytics for educators, researchers and health care professionals that has supplied the UO with access to scholarly journals over the past decade.

While library officials are reaching out to selected faculty members and department heads in areas represented by Elsevier’s publishing catalog, questions and comments are invited from any member of the UO community through an open feedback form.

This will be UO’s first major renegotiation of terms with Elsevier since 2014. UO Libraries is seeking a contract that will reduce costs by 50 percent with no corresponding loss of access.

The UO supports UO Libraries’ efforts to reimagine and redevelop its relationship with Elsevier. UO's current contract with Elsevier ends Dec. 31. If the parties cannot come to an agreement by that time, the UO is prepared to leave the relationship, joining a growing number of major research institutions that have stopped or significantly reduced their spending with Elsevier.

Leaving the relationship with Elsevier would mean retaining access to all the published content the UO has subscribed to through 2022 and relying on open content and alternative access routes for new publications moving forward.

UO Libraries are prepared to reinvest savings into library alternative access programs, interlibrary lending, open publishing agreements with publishers and academic societies, and other initiatives that better support faculty members and the academic mission, while minimizing inconvenience to researchers.