Project DEAL (Projekt DEAL) is a consortium-like structure spearheaded by the German Rectors' Conference, on behalf of its fellow members in the Alliance of Science Organizations in Germany [de] and tasked with negotiating nationwide transformative open access agreements with the three largest commercial publishers of scholarly journals (Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley) for the benefit of all German academic institutions, including universities, research institutes, and their libraries.
[7] Dozens of German researchers resigned from their editor roles for Elsevier journals to strengthen Projekt DEAL's push for open access.
The costs of the agreement are based on the number of articles published, with the per-article PAR fee set at €2,750 for publications in hybrid journals.
With more than 13,000 scholarly articles by authors affiliated with German institutions accepted for publication each year in Springer Nature journals, the publisher disseminates a significant portion of Germany's research output.
Smaller publishers, learned societies and innovative new platforms will be at a significant disadvantage unless they are properly considered and steps are taken to ensure they are able to compete fairly in the market.
Conducting discussions with smaller publishers, both fully OA and those with mixed models, and sharing the outcomes and ideas that arise could therefore be enormously helpful.