Agreement Resulted in 10,000 OA Articles from German Scholars, According to New Whitepaper
February 1, 2022 - Hoboken, NJ - Wiley, a global leader in research and education, announced the extension of its landmark open access partnership with Projekt DEAL, a countrywide consortium representative of more than 900 academic institutions in Germany.
The landmark agreement, which began in 2019, provides participating Projekt DEAL institutions with the opportunity to access Wiley's academic journals while enabling researchers from all eligible institutions to publish articles open access in Wiley's journals. The partnership has delivered a significant uptick in the volume and percentage of articles to be published open access by researchers in Germany. Based on a recent whitepaper, the agreement has fundamentally shifted the way in which research is accessed and communicated in Germany:
- In 2020, on average, 93% of authors from German institutions publishing in Wiley's hybrid journal portfolio took advantage of the opportunity to disseminate their articles under an open license, with uptake continuously on the rise.
- Growth in articles published openly in both Wiley's hybrid and fully OA journals resulted in a total of more than 10,000 peer-reviewed research articles by German authors disseminated immediately and openly available in 2020.
- As a result of the agreement, researchers at more than 500 German institutions also gained comprehensive access to Wiley's subscription-based journal portfolio, prompting an increase in their usage of peer-reviewed research articles by 45%.
"The open access landscape has evolved significantly since we began this pioneering partnership with Projekt DEAL. Now that we are able to measure the impact of this agreement, we can see how transformative agreements are proof-positive that open access thrives at scale," said Liz Ferguson, Senior Vice President, Wiley Research Publishing. "We are extremely excited to extend this high-impact agreement and continue supporting researchers across Germany."
In addition, Projekt DEAL and Wiley have collaborated on a number of initiatives aimed at enhancing open research communications in Germany and beyond. These include founding an advisory board to assess the progress of implementation of the agreement; launching the open access journal Natural Sciences; hosting an early career researcher symposium with 300 participants; and supporting author and library team experiences through improved workflows and communication.
Since signing this agreement, Wiley has led the charge on transformative open access agreements. The more than 25 agreements signed to-date support more than 1,300 institutions and deliver open access for more than 40,000 articles annually.
