How much is enough?
The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) and scientific information provider Elsevier have reached an agreement in principle that provides Dutch researchers with continued subscription access to high-quality research.
The agreement continues to provide academics at Dutch universities access to all Elsevier journals and allows them to publish through Gold Open Access in a selection of Elsevier journals at no additional cost to the individual researcher.
The agreement is completely confidential, but, given the reference to Gold Open Access, the question of how much the VSNU is paying has to be asked. The other aspect is giving Dutch researchers with continued subscription access to Elsevier journals -- VSNU pays to get articles in, and then their members (presumably) pay subscriptions, giving Elsevier two bites at the cherry!
It's no wonder that journal publishers all seem to generate profits in the order of 30-40%. It's no wonder that the push towards Open Access is becoming irresistible and business models for Green Open Access are developing.
Journal publishers are generating profit that is much better than other industries (e.g., automobiles, mining, search engine and premium computing) as shown results above. With subscription fees for accessing to high-quality research and free publication for Dutch researchers is a clever strategy for making more profits for Elsevier than other industries.