Landmark new open access agreements have been reached with Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley, and negotiations with Elsevier have been paused.

The agreements are known as “Read and Publish Agreements”, which cover access rights to content (“read”) and UWA authors publishing in journals (“publish”).

UWA’s agreements with the large academic publishers are negotiated on our behalf by the Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL), representing University Libraries in the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand region.

In 2025, CAUL has been leading negotiations with major publishers to develop transformed agreements that represent a step-change in value, openness, and sustainability for the benefit of CAUL Members and their communities. CAUL’s negotiations have been driven by the following principles:

• Ensuring transparent, fair and equitable value
• Maximising open access publishing opportunities
• Exploring new and innovative agreement models
• Advancing the transition to full OA

These principles align with similar negotiations advocating for fairer publishing agreements in Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden.

You can read more about the approach and drivers towards sustainable and transparent agreements on the CAUL website.

Current Status of the Negotiations

CAUL has reached agreement with the following publishers - Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley. These agreements were announced on the 13 November 2025 and the 28 November 2025.

The agreements with these three publishers commence 1 January 2026, and provide more options for UWA authors who want to make their research outputs available through these publishers. The new agreements are progress towards more sustainable models and increased open access to research.

CAUL and Elsevier have paused their negotiations, as they were unable to reach agreement on terms at this time. As a result, UWA is not renewing its current read and publish agreement with Elsevier which is due to end 31 December 2025.

Impact on Elsevier Science Direct

From 1 January 2026, UWA staff and students will no longer have access to a portion of content from the Science Direct platform. As UWA has historically subscribed to Elsevier journal content over many years we do have ongoing access to a large amount of the back catalogue of content. However, ceasing the agreement will mean UWA staff and students do not automatically have access to new content from 2026 onwards.

The agreement has previously covered publishing fees for a selection of Elsevier hybrid journal titles for UWA authors. These publishing fees will not be covered by UWA for these titles from 1 January 2026.

UWA is committed to providing timely updates and information as it becomes available including contingencies and alternatives for access to content and publishing options.