The new agreements have started 1 January 2025 and are running for two years with an optional extension for a third year.
Commitment to open access
The new read and publish agreement reaffirms the commitment of the research community in the Netherlands to open access. The agreement continues to provide Dutch researchers with reading rights to the peer-reviewed content from Elsevier’s portfolio of journals via ScienceDirect.
The new agreement additionally provides unlimited open access publishing with 100% discount in eligible journals, which can be found in the VU Journal Publishing Guide.
CC BY
It is also a step forward in transparency in the areas of privacy, AI, text and data mining and user rights. Under the new agreement, researchers publish their work using a CC BY license by default, which offers the academic community the freest form of reuse.
For reasons of transparency, the contract is publicly available and registered on the ESAC Registry.
Scopus
A separate agreement provides access to Scopus, the world’s largest multidisciplinary abstract and citations database.
Research performing organisations involved
66 Dutch research performing organisations are covered by these agreements:
- 14 universities (UNL, Universities of the Netherlands)
- 7 university medical centres (NFU, Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres)
- 23 universities of applied science
- 10 National Research Institutes (NWO-I, Foundation for Dutch Scientific Research Institutes)
- 12 Academy Institutes (KNAW, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)
See the full press release on the website of the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL)
Agreements
SURF and Elsevier - Read and Publish Agreement 2025-2026 (2027)
SURF and Elsevier -Scopus Framework Agreement 2025-2026 (2027)
