Library Guides: Publisher Agreement FAQs: Elsevier Agreement FAQs

Elsevier Agreement FAQs

Publisher agreement update

New open access agreements have been reached with Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley, while negotiations with Elsevier have been paused.

As a result, UWA is not renewing its current read and publish agreement with Elsevier which is due to end 31 December 2025. More information about the negotiations with the major publishers can be found on the Library's Stay Updated webpage.

Impact for UWA staff and students

From 1 January 2026:

UWA staff and students will continue to have access to new journal content from Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley.
UWA researchers may publish in an expanded list of hybrid and gold journal titles from Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley, without having to pay open access fees.
UWA staff and students will no longer have access to a portion of content from the ScienceDirect platform. As UWA has historically subscribed to Elsevier journal content over many years we do have ongoing access to a large amount of the back catalogue of content. However, ceasing the agreement will mean UWA staff and students do not automatically have access to new content from 2026 onwards.
Elsevier publishing fees for selected hybrid titles will no longer be covered by a read and publish agreement.

Below is a list of answers to frequently asked questions about accessing content and publishing options with Elsevier. This list will be reviewed and updated as more information is made available.

How do I access Elsevier content?

UWA staff and students will continue to have access to Elsevier content via the ScienceDirect platform where they can access content we have subscribed to historically, open access content, and titles where we have separate agreements. If you come across an article in ScienceDirect or other platforms, and are unsure if full text access is available, we recommend you use the LibKey Nomad browser extension. This will help you easily connect to full text where it is available when browsing on websites such as Google Scholar and PubMed.

If full text is not available, UWA staff and postgraduate students can submit a Get It request and the Library will obtain a copy for you. Sign into OneSearch and submit the Get It request form in the top banner. You can find out more about the Get It service here.

Some researchers may be familiar with peer-to-peer and author sharing options which mean authors can share limited amounts of content with colleagues and collaborators. This can also be an option for sourcing access to recently published articles.

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Will I be able to publish in Elsevier journals?

We still recommend that you publish in the journal that is the best fit for your research, regardless of publisher or whether we have a read and publish agreement. If you choose to publish with an Elsevier journal and want to ensure you have an open access copy available:

You can openly share a version of the paper, known as the author's accepted manuscript (AAM), in UWA's Profiles and Research Repository after an embargo period has passed. This option is known as repository based open access. Find out more in the Library's Open Access Toolkit. Embargo periods vary depending on the title and can range from 6 to 36 months. Find out more on Elsevier's Article Sharing webpage .
Elsevier permits authors to share their preprint version "anywhere at any time". This includes discipline-specific preprint repositories such as arXiv.
HDR students are permitted to include their articles as part of their thesis, provided full attribution is included to the original article.
If you require immediate open access without embargo, for example due to funder requirements, you can choose to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) to Elsevier or use the Author Accepted Manuscript (repository-based open access) pathway and include a "Retention of Ownership Rights" statement on submission as per the advice from the NHMRC. More information is available on the NHMRC Open access and retention of ownership rights page.

For more information on identifying where to publish, refer to our Library Guide on How to Publish and Disseminate Research.

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What if my research funding agreement requires open access publication?

The two main Australian research funders who require open access are the ARC and NHMRC:

1. The 2021 ARC Open Access Policy requires researchers make research outputs available open access within 12 months, either by open access publishing or repository open access. To comply with this agreement, authors may publish in Elsevier journal titles where the journal policy permits self-archiving through deposit in a repository following an embargo of less than 12 months or pay an Article Processing Charge.

2. The 2022 NHMRC Open Access Policy requires researchers make research outputs open access immediately upon publication and advises two pathways to achieve this: Version of Record open access (journal-based open access) through payment of an APC, or Author Accepted Manuscript open access (repository-based open access) and including a "Retention of Ownership Rights" statement on submission as per the advice from the NHMRC. More information is available on the NHMRC Open access and retention of ownership rights page.

For the NHMRC, note publishing costs should not be included in the Direct Research Costs (DRC) in the budget when applying for funding. However,over the course of the grant, researchers may use funds to support these costs as long as they align with DRC principles.

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I've already submitted to an Elsevier journal that is likely to be accepted after the agreement ends. What do I do?

Authors are prompted to identify open access (OA) publishing options at point of submission and point of acceptance; however it is at acceptance that the OA publishing option is confirmed.

If your paper is accepted for publication prior to the 31 December 2025 it will be published OA free of charge under UWA’s 2025 read and publish agreement.

If you have submitted your paper with Elsevier, and it is then accepted after the 31 December 2025, it will not be covered by UWA’s 2025 Read and Publish agreement. You can either modify the publishing option to ‘pay-to-read' at the acceptance stage (meaning the publication will be available to subscribers only) or opt to pay the Article Processing Charge (APC) locally. The Author's Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version of the paper may be made openly available in the UWA Profiles and Research Repository immediately if you have used the NHMRC "Retention of Ownership Rights" Statement on submission, or following any embargo periods specific to the journal.

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I'm a HDR student - can I include my published article in my thesis?

Yes, if you have published an article with Elsevier you can include the full published article in the print and electronic version of your thesis, providing you give full attribution to the original article including DOI links back to the formal publication on ScienceDirect.

For more information on how you can share your articles, see Elsevier’s article sharing policy..

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Will I still have access to Mendeley?

As access to Mendeley Institution Edition accounts was bundled with the now cancelled Elsevier agreement, these will revert to a free account from 1 January 2026.

Institutional Mendeley Account	Free Mendeley Account
100 GB personal library space	2 GB personal library space
Create up to 1000 groups, with up to 100 collaborators in each, with 100 GB group library space to share articles	Create up to 5 groups with a maximum of 25 collaborators per group, and 100 MB shared storage across all groups
Ability to join groups owned by other researchers	Continued ability to join groups owned by other researchers

The library does not recommend Mendeley due to functional and privacy concerns that have recently been highlighted.

Instead, we recommend that you transition your library to EndNote. There are instructions available for transferring from Mendeley desktop. Please contact us if you require further assistance.

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Do I still have access to Scopus, SciVal, ClincalKey and other Elsevier products?

Yes, the pause in negotiations only impacts some full text access via the ScienceDirect platform. UWA staff and students will still have access to other Elsevier products and services.

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