22 January 2026
Excerpted from the IOE blog: https://www.ioehighereducation.com/News/university_news/2805
Three UK research-intensive universities have revealed they will not be renewing subscriptions to Elsevier journals amid concerns over the cost of a nationally agreed deal.
Last month the sector IT body Jisc, which has been leading talks with the “big five” academic publishers – Taylor & Francis, Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Sage – on behalf of the UK sector, announced negotiations had successfully concluded after nine months of talks.
While Jisc said the deals represented “strong, market-leading offers that maximise value and deliver savings compared to historic pricing”, several universities have chosen not to take up subscriptions with the world’s largest publisher Elsevier, which runs more than 2,800 journals.
In a statement, the University of Kent confirmed it is “not renewing the Elsevier Read and Publish agreement in 2026”, stating “funds released will be used to support a more sustainable and researcher focused approach to Open Access (OA) publishing at Kent, which includes funding for APCs [article processing charges] in Elsevier journals.” Details of whether the university will sign up to agreements with the other four publishers have not yet been released.
An update by the University of Essex also confirms its deal with Elsevier has not been renewed, though agreements with Sage, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis and Wiley for 2026 onwards are in place.
Read the blog post here: https://www.ioehighereducation.com/News/university_news/2805
Also, Times Higher covered it here (paywall): https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/three-major-research-universities-opt-out-new-elsevier-deal