Who negotiates Read & Publish agreements and how are decisions made?
Read and Publish licenses are negotiated by the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries (CSAL). Acting on behalf of swissuniversities, the Consortium represents more than 40 Swiss universities and institutions. This collective representation strengthens Switzerland's position in negotiations with scientific publishers.
Decision-making processes vary depending on the publisher:
- For Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley (the “Big Deals”): The negotiation objectives are defined by the Open Science Delegation (DelOS) and then approved by the members of swissuniversities. By signing, the universities, institutions, and libraries concerned support these objectives and undertake not to conduct parallel negotiations. The results and experiences of previous negotiations are regularly discussed between the various stakeholders (universities, libraries, institutions). The final decision on whether to accept the agreement is taken by the Open Science Delegation (DelOS).
- For other publishers: Negotiations are based on the same principles and objectives as those for Big Deals. However, decisions are made directly by the libraries and institutions concerned.