Germany's Projekt DEAL

Germany's Projekt DEAL
Name	Projekt DEAL
Established	2014
Country	Germany
Focus	Nationwide transformative agreements for scholarly publishing

Germany's Projekt DEAL is a German national initiative that negotiated large-scale, transformative agreements between major scholarly publishers and a consortium of German research institutions, including universities, libraries, and research organizations. The project aimed to shift subscription-dominated access models toward publish-and-read arrangements that increase open access availability for authors affiliated with participating institutions. Projekt DEAL engaged with multinational publishers and national stakeholders to redesign workflows affecting scholarly communication across Germany and internationally.

Background and objectives

Projekt DEAL originated amid tensions between subscription models held by publishers such as Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley and German institutions including the Max Planck Society, German Research Foundation, and the German Rectors' Conference. The initiative sought to implement nationwide agreements akin to transformative deals pursued by the Open Access movement, the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, and policies from agencies like the European Commission and national ministries such as the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany). Projekt DEAL's objectives included renegotiating payment flows with publishers, increasing the share of immediately open access articles under licenses like Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY), and enabling access to publisher archives for participating institutions including the Helmholtz Association and the Fraunhofer Society.

Negotiation process and partners

Negotiations were coordinated by the Alliance of Science Organizations in Germany and administratively managed by the BIBSAM Consortium-like approach with the German Rectors' Conference and the Common Library Network. Key negotiating partners from the publishing industry included Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley-Blackwell, with deal structures compared to similar national negotiations such as those led by the Wellcome Trust, University of California, and consortia like Jisc in the United Kingdom and the French National Research Agency-aligned agreements. Negotiation tactics referenced frameworks from the Max Planck Digital Library and invoked legal considerations under statutes used by entities such as the European Court of Justice.

Key agreements and terms

Projekt DEAL concluded landmark agreements with Wiley and Springer Nature featuring "publish-and-read" models where participating institutions paid consolidated fees covering both subscription access and article processing charges (APCs). Agreements specified licensing terms often favoring Creative Commons licenses such as Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) for immediate open access, inclusion of metadata standards from CrossRef, and allocation mechanisms for APC waivers and discounts for authors affiliated with institutions like Humboldt University of Berlin and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Terms addressed archival access to backfiles comparable to provisions in agreements negotiated by the COUNTER project and compliance expectations aligned with funder mandates from organizations such as the Wellcome Trust and the European Research Council.

Implementation and participating institutions

Implementation involved national consortia members including the Max Planck Society, Fraunhofer Society, Helmholtz Association, the Leibniz Association, and numerous universities such as Freie Universität Berlin, Technical University of Munich, and University of Heidelberg. Administrative workflows were coordinated with library systems including GBV and KOBV, authentication via federations like DFN-AAI, and metadata exchange with services such as ORCID and PubMed. Implementation phases included pilot periods, metrics collection through COUNTER, and monitoring aligned with evaluation frameworks used by the European Commission and national funding guidance from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany).

Impact on open access and publishing market

Projekt DEAL accelerated the proportion of articles by German-affiliated authors available under open access licenses at publishers like Springer Nature and Wiley, contributing to shifts in publishing patterns comparable to outcomes from the Plan S initiative and mandates by the Wellcome Trust. The agreements influenced market practices by promoting centralized payment models similar to those adopted by the University of California system and consortia such as Jisc, prompting debates over pricing transparency with publishers including Elsevier. The DEAL outcomes affected scholarly infrastructure providers such as CrossRef, DOAJ, and influenced repository usage for institutions like TU Dresden and University of Freiburg.

Criticisms, controversies, and legal challenges

Projekt DEAL faced criticism from stakeholders including some publishers and library members over pricing, equity for smaller institutions such as regional Hochschulen, and the exclusion of certain publishers like Elsevier during protracted negotiation standoffs. Legal scrutiny referenced competition concerns that related to cases before bodies like the European Commission and discourse about contract law under German law. Critics linked the DEAL approach to debates involving Plan S proponents, the Academic Freedom discourse embodied by institutions such as the Max Planck Society, and concerns raised by library consortia resembling SPARC and LIBER. Litigation or regulatory review did not produce a wholesale overturning of DEAL agreements, but ongoing negotiations and public commentary from entities such as the German Rectors' Conference and individual universities continued to shape the initiative's evolution.

Category:Open access Category:Academic publishing Category:Higher education in Germany