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Monitoring the Transition to Open Access: The 2019-2020 Projekt DEAL – Wiley Transformative Agreement Report

monitoring-the-transition-to-open-access-the-2019-2020-projekt-deal-wiley-transformative-agreement-report

Melanie Lehnert-Bechle, Director, Open Access Business Development, Wiley

January 10, 2022

Projekt DEAL white paper: Monitoring the transition to open access in Germany

In January 2019, Wiley and Projekt DEAL signed the first nationwide transformative open access agreement in Germany. Corresponding authors from German institutions can publish their own primary research and review articles open access under the agreement, retaining copyright of their works. Readers from participating institutions also gain access to Wiley’s entire journal portfolio, dating back to 1997.

Now entering the fourth year of the agreement, we have analyzed Wiley data to measure the impact on eligible researchers and institutions in Germany in 2019 and 2020. How has the agreement affected the open access transition in Germany? Do authors fully embrace the opportunity to publish their research openly when funding is provided for centrally? Have the goals of Projekt DEAL been met so far?

We published our analysis in the white paper Monitoring the transition to open access: the 2019-2020 Projekt DEAL–Wiley transformative agreement report which was co-authored by MPDL Services gGmbH, the operating entity of Projekt DEAL.

Based on this analysis, the agreement has fundamentally shifted the way in which research is accessed and communicated in Germany:

  • In 2020, 93% of authors from German institutions publishing in Wiley’s hybrid journal portfolio opted to publish open access.
  • The number of articles published in fully open access journals increased by 58% from 2018 to 2020; combined with open access publication in hybrid journals, this resulted in a total of more than 10,000 open access articles from Germany in 2020.
  • Usage of research published across the Wiley portfolio increased by 45% between 2018 and 2020 across Germany.
  • Researchers from more than 100 institutions gained access to subscription research as a result of the deal.

Read the full white paper below.

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