三月的時候加州大學系統 (UC) 因為 Elsevier 不接受 open access 的條件而公開宣佈不續約 (參考「加州大學宣佈不與 Elsevier 續約」)，後來 Elsevier 應該是試著看看有沒有機會繼續合作，所以在這段期間還是一直提供服務給加州大學系統。
前幾天在 Hacker News 上看到「Elsevier cuts off UC’s access to its academic journals (latimes.com)」，總算是確定要動手了：「In act of brinkmanship, a big publisher cuts off UC’s access to its academic journals」。
不過也不是直接拔掉，而是限制存取權，看不到新東西 (以 2019/01/01 為界)：
As of Wednesday, Elsevier cut off access by UC faculty, staff and students to articles published since Jan. 1 in 2,500 Elsevier journals, including respected medical publications such as Cell and the Lancet and a host of engineering and scientific journals. Access to most material published in 2018 and earlier remains in force.
UC 提出的商業模式是讓投稿者負擔費用，而存取者不需要負擔，與現有的商業模式剛好相反。UC 提出的模式鼓勵「知識的散佈」，而現有的商業模式則是反過來，希望透過知識的散佈而賺～大～錢～發～大～財～：
UC demanded that the new contract reflect the principle of open access — that work produced on its campuses be available to all outside readers, for free.
That was a direct challenge to the business model of Elsevier and other big academic publishers. Traditionally, the publishers accept papers for publication for free but charge steep subscription fees. UC is determined to operate under an alternative model, in which researchers pay to have their papers published but not for subscriptions.
另外在 Hacker News 上的 comment 裡看到一些專案也正在進行，像是歐洲的「Plan S」也是在推動 open access：
The plan requires scientists and researchers who benefit from state-funded research organisations and institutions to publish their work in open repositories or in journals that are available to all by 2021.
另外「PubPub · Community Publishing」也是 open source 領域裡蠻有趣的計畫，後面看起來也有不少學術單位在支持。