Statement from Gemma Hersh, SVP for Global Research Solutions at Elsevier:
As of midnight last night, Elsevier implemented the California Digital Library’s request to end
University of California’s systemwide access to the world’s largest collection of scientific and
medical literature – ending a mutually-beneficial partnership which has for decades supported
UC researchers as they advance science and medicine.
This decision was not made lightly. It saddens us, because we believe it will have a negative
impact on the UC’s renowned research community and because lack of our services will prevent
UC students, faculty, researchers and medical professionals benefiting from reliable, real-time
access to peer-reviewed, published research. That’s why we worked hard with CDL over the past
six months to come to a positive conclusion and extended access at no charge in the good-faith
hope that UC negotiators would come back to the bargaining table and reach a mutuallyagreeable compromise.
We believe this stalemate was avoidable. We understand that the libraries are under cost
pressure, but we don’t believe the solution is to cancel subscriptions to high quality information
providers. What is saved in funds with cancellations, gets lost in the time spent by researchers
trying to find articles in inconvenient and sometimes illegal ways and without any guarantee
that they will find the papers that will help them improve their research. We find it hard to
believe this was about “open access” – Elsevier is already one of world’s leading open-access
publishers and offered to support a five-fold increase in the number of UC open access articles
published in its journals.
Unfortunately, California Digital Library’s decision will impact UC’s 350,000 researchers and
students who will no longer have convenient access to much of the world’s best scientific
literature, impacting the productivity and quality of their work. We hope to resume talks with
California Digital Library and we believe we can find a pragmatic way forward if there is will and
engagement from both sides.