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In partnership with Universities Australia and Universities New Zealand, the Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL) is leading critical negotiations with the four largest academic publishers: Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, and Springer Nature. These negotiations aim to secure more sustainable, equitable, transparent and inclusive agreements for 2026 and beyond. This update outlines recent developments from these negotiations and what they mean for journal access and open access publishing at Curtin University.
New open access agreement with Taylor & Francis
We’re pleased to announce that Australian and New Zealand universities have secured a landmark agreement with Taylor & Francis, taking effect from 1 January 2026. If you publish in Taylor & Francis journals, your research will be openly accessible at no individual cost to you. All Australian and New Zealand university research published through Taylor & Francis will be freely and immediately available to the public. This covers all hybrid and gold journals in the Taylor & Francis portfolio.
Temporary changes to Elsevier access
Negotiations with Elsevier have been temporarily paused while we work toward a fair and sustainable agreement. You may experience changes to access for some Elsevier journals from 2026.
Your alternative access options
If the Library no longer has immediate access to a journal article you require:
LibKey plug-in (Coming in 2026):
We’re implementing LibKey, a catalogue and database plugin that will automatically show you legal access options as you browse the Library Catalogue and databases, including open access ‘Version of Record’ copies. Watch for more information in the new year.
Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Service:
Staff, postgraduate and honours students may request articles through our document delivery service.
Open access version via discipline and institutional repositories:
Search institutional repositories and general repositories like PubMed Central, Zenodo, and OSF. You can also search the Directory of Open Access Repositories, OpenDOAR, for open access repositories in your discipline.
Author Copies:
Reach out to authors directly to request a copy of their articles. Many publishers permit this form of “scholarly sharing” for personal research purposes.
Your alternative publishing options
If you wish to publish with Elsevier, you will be able to do so by publishing via the traditional route or paying an Article Processing Charge.
Consider other publishers:
The Library has open access agreements with a number of publishers.
Check out the journal title list in our Research Toolkit to locate alternative publishing options.
Explore diamond open access journals:
Diamond Open Access is a publishing model where journals charge no fees to authors or readers. These community-driven, academic-led journals aim to center scholarly communication within academia rather than with commercial publishers. Scimago lists 4,516 Diamond journals with quality indicators: 16% are Q1, 24% Q2, 32% Q3, and 28% Q4.
Share your Author Accepted Manuscript via Curtin’s Institutional Repository, espace:
Curtin’s Open Scholarship Policy adopts an institutional rights retention model. Curtin authors are free to choose the journals in which they publish and retain rights to their scholarly articles and proceedings. An Author Accepted Manuscript can be deposited into Curtin’s Institutional Repository, which will be made freely available.
Find out how to deposit your research into espace.
Reading lists
For teaching staff who have Elsevier journal articles in your reading lists, we have already started working behind the scenes to replace citations available via open access or alternative platforms, and will make contact with unit coordinators where we are unable to find alternative access. We are here to help ensure your students have uninterrupted access to essential course materials.
If your unit readings are not currently managed using reading lists, please create a reading list as soon as possible so that the Library can provide continuity of access to your course materials. These will be reviewed by Library staff to ensure access. For assistance with reading lists, contact the Library via readinglists@curtin.edu.au
Need help?
Contact us at libraryhelp@curtin.edu.au if you would like to further assistance.
CAUL is continuing to negotiate new agreements with Wiley and Springer Nature and is confident of reaching a positive outcome with both publishers. We will keep you updated as negotiations progress and new agreements are finalised.
