The peak library body aims for a “future state of immediate and perpetual open access to content”

The big open access battles are being fought in Europe (for-profit publishers v Plan S nations) and the US (Elsevier v University of California) but all seems quiet on the Australian front.

Not quite. The Council of Australian University Librarians, which manages publisher agreements, says change is imminent.

A “transformative read and publish agreement” with “a significant medium-sized university press” is “in advanced negotiations.”  CAUL is also negotiating with “three smaller learned society publishers for transformative agreements.”

“The focus is on journal publishing with the aim of transforming the nature of the agreements from subscription-based access to content as the starting point, to service-based publishing and open access to content as the end point. The aim is a future state of immediate and perpetual open access to content.”

CAUL isn’t saying who it is talking to, but expects these deals to be announced next year.

And maybe this could be the start of something big. “Early planning and preliminary modelling is underway with a major publisher for a read & publish agreement to commence in 2021,” the council advises.