Project DEAL

Project DEAL (Projekt DEAL) is a consortium-like structure spearheaded by <a href="/facts/German_Rectors%27_Conference/qgq2eJSk">the German Rectors' Conference</a>, on behalf of its fellow members in the Alliance of Science Organizations in Germany [de] and tasked with negotiating nationwide transformative <a href="/facts/Open_access/r7rLYN6C">open access</a> agreements with the three largest commercial publishers of <a href="/facts/Academic_journal/SBI7Ue0q">scholarly journals</a> (<a href="/facts/Elsevier/jkPSAEmR">Elsevier</a>, <a href="/facts/Springer_Nature/TpTgApAh">Springer Nature</a>, and <a href="/facts/Wiley_(publisher)/53g3LqJc">Wiley</a>) for the benefit of all German academic institutions, including universities, research institutes, and their libraries. Through each of these agreements, the consortium aims to secure immediate open access publication of all new <a href="/facts/Academic_publishing/WfPqsYr1">research articles</a> by authors from German institutions, permanent full-text access to the publisher's complete journal portfolio, and fair pricing for these services according to a simple cost model based on the number of articles published.
Project DEAL is part of a much larger movement worldwide that led to boycotts of mega publishers like Elsevier to achieve publishing and access deals that cover all universities at once within a defined space (usually a country, consortium or university system) rather than single universities. These boycotts have led to significant reductions in profits and pushed mega publishers to reduce their prices and make several other concessions. 
Project DEAL has changed its name to the <a href="https://deal-konsortium.de/en/about-deal/rationale-and-objectives">DEAL Consortium</a>.

Project DEAL open-in-new

Project DEAL