UK universities are close to sealing an open-access deal with the academic publisher Elsevier, following protracted negotiations on the replacement of the UK’s largest subscription agreement. On 24 February, a spokesperson for the higher education IT firm Jisc confirmed that the sector had accepted a proposal from Elsevier “which meets their core requirements”. “Contract negotiations are currently ongoing, before a deal is finalised,” they said.
One step forward, one step back.