National licence negotiations advancing the OA transitions: a view from Sweden

Abstract

The National Library of Sweden (NLS) has worked with advancing open access (OA) to scholarly output since 2006. In 2017 it received an appropriation directive from the Government to act as a national coordinating body in the work towards a transition to immediate OA of publicly funded research output by 2026. As a consequence, the NLS includes this objective in its vision for 2025 to lead the work moving from subscription-based to immediate openly accessible research publications. As part of this objective the Bibsam Consortium therefore negotiates journal license agreements including OA components in order to help achieve a rapid and sustainable transition to OA. Recognizing our leverage in these negotiation has also meant that stepping away from the negotiation table is an option, and the case of the Swedish Elsevier cancellation will be further presented. In order to reach the target set by the Swedish Government, there is a strong need for institutional reallocation of funds. The main stakeholders in Sweden must not lose momentum in this process but make a concerted push forward in negotiations with publishers to achieve a sustainable scholarly publishing system in unison with its international counterparts.