In January, there will be changes to access to some Library resources (journals).
The University will not renew its 'big deal' subscription to Elsevier, which expires on 31 December 2024.
The Library is working with academic schools to ensure that your recommended readings are made available by alternative access and reading list links will be updated.
For your individual study and research, we still have instant access to a lot of Elsevier material through other arrangements.
How to search for access to a text
- - this shows open access journal articles, as well as articles we subscribe to, while you’re browsing online.
- Make a request through the interlibrary request service - where you are unable to get direct access to the full text of the items you need.
If you have any questions or queries, please contact us: library@sheffield.ac.uk
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Read on for further information about the decision
Like a number of universities around the world, we have concerns over the sustainability of the current commercial scientific publishing model, which is increasingly unsustainable for the higher education sector and makes a lot of publicly-funded research inaccessible.
We are working with JISC, the national body that negotiates publisher deals on behalf of the sector and other partners, including the N8 partnership of research-intensive universities, to move to a more sustainable, equitable and open alternative to large journal subscription deals.
With this in mind, we have taken the decision not to renew our Elsevier subscription. Elsevier is a large publisher and the read-only journal subscriptions no longer represent value for money for our university, taking up funds that could be used to better support research, teaching and learning.
Our Elsevier subscription will expire on 31 December 2024. This will not affect our ability to publish in Elsevier journals. We are also identifying critical and high-use Elsevier journals and setting up individual read-only subscriptions for them. This will be based on the current usage of titles and whether they appear on reading lists for degree programmes.
The University Library provides access to a million e-books, 60,000 journal titles and more than a million print volumes, and we will continue to add new materials that support our education and research.
Whenever our journal subscriptions are due for renewal, we look closely at their usage, whether they are meeting the needs of our students and staff and if they provide value for money. We will continue to do this to ensure spending on Library resources supports our vision for research and education.