Elsevier partnering with the Dutch research community

In January 2020, Elsevier agreed an open science initiative with organizations (UNL, NFU, UKB and NWO) representing research institutions in the Netherlands. The collaboration ran until December 2024 and was successful in driving open access, had impressive participation in a number of open science pilots and attracted significant attention outside the country.  

Unprecedented participation in Open Science pilots 

The partnership set out to contribute to the ambitious open science aims in the Netherlands. Over the course of the partnership eight pilots were setup, with almost all Dutch universities.  

The pilot initiatives focused on improving open data, facilitating the sharing of research datasets, grants, preprints, and author contributor data (see epdos.nl opens in new tab/window for details), with the aim of supporting transparency and reproducibility in research, and providing broader datasets for Reward and Recognition purposes. In other pilots, smart technologies were tested to open-up and analyse information about Rare Diseases and retrieve data on research equipment, helping to facilitate sharing of research facilities and assessing their impact (Return on Investment). The participating institutions have made data available in public portals, used the data for analytical purposes, for testing or to improve internal support processes.  

While institutions have different open science ambitions, all agree there is a common goal to further improve the data quality of their research inputs, outputs and infrastructures to support open science. These pilots have shown that this goal can be reached when all stakeholders collaborate and are fully committed.  

Highly Successful Open Access arrangement  

The positive trends that were reported in our mid-term review (see here opens in new tab/window) have continued. The open access articles published under the agreement had a huge audience; they were viewed over 100 million times in over 150 countries and are testament to the high quality of Dutch research. In terms of impact (measured by “field weighted citation impact”), these articles are close to 70% more impactful than the global research impact average. 

The agreement has been one of the most effective in the country and has helped to make the overall Netherlands open access publication rate across all output (82%) one of the highest globally. 

More access to global knowledge than ever before 

In terms of access to global information for Dutch academia, we continue to see further progress. By significantly expanding access to Elsevier's platforms, such as ScienceDirect and Scopus, more Dutch researchers, clinicians, and students than ever before, had access to some of the most impactful global research, fostering knowledge exchange and collaboration. 

Guided by strong collaboration and governance 

By ensuring academic autonomy, data ownership and transparency in decision-making processes, this partnership set a successful precedent for future public-private partnerships (see www.epdows.nl opens in new tab/window for details). 

Those who have been involved, whether directly or indirectly, consider the collaboration to be highly valuable and a solid foundation for continued cooperation. The agreement has laid the groundwork for continued support from Elsevier in advancing open science initiatives and improving research and healthcare outcomes in the country.  

Joep Verheggen (Elsevier) opens in new tab/window

Co-Chair of the joint steering group of the UNL-NFU-UKB-NWO-Elsevier agreement