I have stopped submitting to and reviewing for Elsevier journals until they have a contract with UC

As part of the global open access movement, the University of California has been working to renegotiate its contract with Elsevier to make all papers published by UC faculty open access as soon as they are published in a way that does not increase total costs to UC and its faculty. 

This is also being driven by the rapidly increasing subscription costs and open access fees that Elsevier (and other publishers) are charging while increasing profit margins.  (Here is a good article in The Atlantic about the issue.)

UC has been negotiating with Elsevier for months and UC has been without a contact with Elsevier since January 1, 2019.  The negotiations broke down last week after Elsevier emailed UC faculty trying to mobilize them against the UC negotiating team (which includes, for the first time, faculty).

As of this date, Elsevier has not yet “pulled the plug” on 2019 papers.  (Based on old contracts, access to earlier work is guaranteed.)   UC has set up ways for faculty, students and staff to access these papers should Elsevier pull the plug; details on how to adapt are here.

I completely support the University’s position in this issue and have decided to stop submitting papers to and reviewing papers for Elsevier journals.  This policy does not apply to papers that have already been submitted or reviewing revised papers that I previously reviewed.

But when I get new requests, I am declining the review and sending this comment on the reason why: 

Elsevier and the University of California have not been able to agree on terms to extend UC's contract with Elsevier and the negotiations have broken down.  UC is seeking open access for papers by UC authors and an end to rapid increases in Elsevier costs.  I agree with these positions and have decided not to do any more volunteer work for Elsevier journals until these negotiations have completed.

I apologize for the inconvenience.  The paper looks interesting.

In addition, I signed the Change.org petition on this issue launched by UCSF faculty members Peter Walter and Dyche Mullins to boycott Elsevier