RMIT Library is participating in a sector-wide renegotiation of agreements with several publishers, led by the Council of Australasian University Librarians.
Last updated: 28 November 2025
Latest developments
28 November 2025: The Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL) has reached agreement in principle for read and publish agreements with global publishers Springer Nature and Wiley. Read the press release (PDF).
21 November 2025: The Library's Teaching team will soon directly contact course coordinators whose reading lists include ScienceDirect citations to provide support in sourcing or replacing impacted content.
14 November 2025: The Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL) announces landmark new Taylor & Francis agreement, while pausing negotiations with Elsevier. Read the press release (PDF).
Publisher updates and Library support
- An agreement for 2026 has not been reached with Elsevier. CAUL will continue to engage in good faith negotiations until an agreement that benefits the sector is reached.
- This may lead to some disruption and potential delays in access to Elsevier articles. However, alternative avenues are available.
What does this mean for researchers?
Read
- We expect approximately 50% of Elsevier articles to remain available via post-termination access and open access (including Gold access).
- Additionally, the Library can secure access to other articles via the Document Delivery Service and other mechanisms.
- Find perpetually owned and open access articles via LibrarySearch.
- Install Unpaywall and LibKey Nomad browser extensions to unlock free content. See frequently asked questions below for detailed instructions.
- If you can’t access a particular article via the above avenues, contact the Library at Ask the Library
Publish
You can still publish to Elsevier journals. The current advice is to:
- allocate part of research grant payments to pay for Article Processing Charges (APCs).
- consider other pathways to publishing open access, including:
- other Read and Publish agreements available through RMIT. Refer to the Read and Publish agreements page for details.
- adding a copy of the 'accepted manuscript' version of your article to the Research Repository when not publishing with an open access publication. Refer to the Research Repository page for instructions.
What does this mean for educators and students?
- The Library's Teaching team will soon directly contact course coordinators whose reading lists include ScienceDirect citations to provide support in sourcing or replacing impacted content.
- Install Unpaywall and LibKey Nomad browser extensions to unlock free content. See frequently asked questions below for detailed instructions.
- For alternatives to Mendeley, we recommend exploring Endnote and Zotero.
A new in principle agreement has been reached providing comprehensive open access publishing options for authors at participating institutions, including both gold and hybrid journals. Authors will now be able to publish openly without facing article processing charges.
A new, fully uncapped open access in principle agreement has been reached.
A new in principle agreement has been reached providing comprehensive open access publishing options for authors at participating institutions, including both gold and hybrid journals. Authors will now be able to publish openly without facing article processing charges.
About the negotiations
The Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL) is currently negotiating on behalf of the Australian and New Zealand university sector for new agreements, commencing 2026, with four commercial publishers: Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, and Taylor & Francis.
As of 28 November 2025, in principle agreements have been reached with all publishers except for Elsevier.
CAUL is negotiating in good faith for:
- refreshed pricing models that deliver better value for universities
- simplified and increased open access publishing opportunities for individual researchers and universities through uncapped publishing entitlements and fully inclusive title lists
- free “read” access to all research output.
Why are we renegotiating agreements
At RMIT, we're focused on amplifying the translation and impact of our research for positive societal impact. When our researchers can publish the best of their research to the best journals without prohibitive cost barriers, society benefits.
Since 2023, RMIT's Read and Publish (R&P) agreements with Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, and Taylor & Francis have enabled RMIT authors to avoid more than $9.5M of Article Processing Charges (August 2025).
However, these R&P agreements were intended as interim steps toward full open access. There is still a way to go to ensure that Universities are getting a fair deal from commercial publishers, by addressing inflated legacy pricing, as well as the uncertainty and frustration caused by capped agreements and other limitations in current agreements, such as excluded titles.
Timings and impacts
These negotiations impact agreements due to commence in 2026. While negotiations are continuing, RMIT is planning for all eventualities and preparing support to minimise potential impacts on our community.
We will endeavour to provide you with access to the research you need, or a suitable alternative, while negotiations continue.
Should a desired outcome not be reached with Elsevier, there will be no CAUL agreement in place for that publisher’s journals in 2026. This may result in some disruption in the region until the publisher in question offers an agreement that provides fair value for the sector.
Please note:
If an agreement is not reached and there is no deal in place with any publisher at any stage in 2026 while negotiations continue, academic staff will still be able to publish in journals linked to the publisher/s in question.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, open access journals and perpetually owned journals will continue to be available from a publisher if an agreement is not reached for 2026.
Some journals that are also outside of large packages and individually subscribed to are out of scope of negotiations and will remain available.
Yes, if we don't reach an agreement with a publisher for 2026, linked Read and Publish agreements will be cancelled until a new agreement is secured. This may lead to slight delays in providing you with access to some publisher content. There may also be reduced access to some publisher content.
Unpaywall
It is a browser extension available for Chrome and Firefox. It provides access to research papers for free by harvesting OA content from legal sources (such as institutional repositories).
- Unpaywall browser extension download.
- Frequently asked questions about Unpaywall
- Unpaywall DOI search tool
LibKey Nomad
It is a browser extension that can link a user directly to the full-text PDF when in a database or journal website. LibKey Nomad will only pop up when access is available.
Yes. Authors can still publish without a Library agreement in place. You will need to pay an Article Processing Charge for open access articles.
An option to publish behind a paywall can also be considered for hybrid journals. Please contact the journal directly to explore your options.
The Library has many Read and Publish Agreements in place. More information on alternative agreements can be found on the Library Read and Publish Agreements website.
For guidance on other Open Access options, such as providing the accepted manuscript in the RMIT Research Repository, see the Open Access Publishing Guide.
Look for the article in LibrarySearch. If it doesn't appear in your search results, apply the 'Expand beyond RMIT collections' filter and take advantage of our Document Delivery Service to request it. For quick access to the request form, look for the Document Delivery link in the top menu of LibrarySearch. Login required.
If you have any questions that aren't covered on this page, please reach out to us via Ask the Library.
