Subscribers to Elsevier's science portal, Nuclear Physics Electronic, thought they were buying long-term access to the ejournals in the collection. But now Elsevier has revoked access to five years' worth of these journals unless subscribers pay more to subscribe to Science Direct. This is not the first time Elsevier has taken such a step. For the Stuttgart University Library, it is the last straw. Quoting Bernd-Christoph Kaemper, a Stuttgart librarian:
[O]ur university's library advisory board unanimously decided to back up the library's proposal for a politically motivated "emergency decision" to cancel our Elsevier subscriptions. At the same time, we'll encourage faculty to publish in not-for-profit society and open access journals and to follow a consequent strategy to self-archive their refereed journal articles in open electronic archives. Stuttgart University library is a signatory to the Budapest Open Access Initiative.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
