National Research Council of Science & Technology and Elsevier sign pilot agreement to support open access publishing alongside continued research access in South Korea

SEOUL, Dec. 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- South Korea's National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) and Elsevier, a global research publishing and information analytics provider, today announced a new three-year agreement that will provide South Korean researchers access to global academic research and offer them Open Access (OA) publishing options from January 1, 2021.

The agreement provides 25 government-funded research institutes (GRIs) across South Korea under the administration of NST access to ScienceDirect, Elsevier's world-leading platform that brings together scientific knowledge and peer-reviewed research with more than 16 million articles from the company's 2,500 journals. It also enables South Korean researchers to publish their research open access.

Sun-Hwa Hahn, Acting Chairperson, NST, said: "The first OA transformative agreement with Elsevier marks a progressive step towards unrestricted access to South Korean academic research outputs to be read and re-used by the global academic community. This opportunity will encourage our researchers to proliferate their scientific output around the world. In line with the global trend of Open Science and the sharing of research data, NST will endeavour to accelerate the transition to open access."

Gino Ussi, Executive Vice President, Elsevier, said: "We are delighted to build on our strategic relationship with the NST with a new agreement to support the priorities of the South Korean research community. Our collaborative and flexible approach means we can continue to provide researchers full access to our vast portfolio of academic research as well as providing options for them to publish open access, amplifying the work of South Korean scientists globally."

As a global leader in information and analytics, Elsevier helps researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. Our agreement that supports NST's OA goals is another example of the many tailored pilot or transformative agreements we've similarly established with other universities and consortia around the world, supporting OA. Each of these agreements are tailored to the specific needs of our partners, ranging from reading and publishing services, to broader areas such as reproducibility, transparency and collaboration in research. Our aim is to test and learn, to better understand how we can support all our customers' differing needs.

About National Research Council of Science & Technology
South Korea's National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) is supporting 25 government-funded research institutes(GRI) in the science and technology fields to remain committed to their mission and objectives with their competitive and challenging spirit. In South Korea, GRIs have been the driving force of economic growth as well as South Korea's science and technology development. In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, NST is taking on a new challenge so that GRIs solve national problems through various convergence researches in their own missions and lead the re-leap of national science and technology through securing the core technologies. NST plans the direction of development of GRIs and encourages continuous innovation enabling GRIs to conduct advanced R&D activities. Also, NST creates a convergence research ecosystem where GRIs are able to exchange and expand the international cooperation with overseas advanced research institutes to enhance their research capabilities and technological competitiveness. Finally, to ensure research outputs from GRIs contribute to economic development, NST actively encourages enterprises to utilize the outputs in enhancing their technological competitiveness and R&D capabilities.

About Elsevier
As a global leader in information and analytics, Elsevier helps researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. We do this by facilitating insights and critical decision-making for customers across the global research and health ecosystems.

In everything we publish, we uphold the highest standards of quality and integrity. We bring that same rigor to our information analytics solutions for researchers, health professionals, institutions and funders.

Elsevier employs 8,100 people worldwide. We have supported the work of our research and health partners for more than 140 years. Growing from our roots in publishing, we offer knowledge and valuable analytics that help our users make breakthroughs and drive societal progress. Digital solutions such as ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey and Sherpath support strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and health education. Researchers and healthcare professionals rely on our 2,500+ digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell; our 40,000 eBook titles; and our iconic reference works, such as Gray's Anatomy. With the Elsevier Foundation and our external Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board, we work in partnership with diverse stakeholders to advance inclusion and diversity in science, research and healthcare in developing countries and around the world.

Elsevier is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. www.elsevier.com

Media contacts
Soyeon, Kim, Administrator, Research Administration Advancement Center
National Research Council of Science & Technology
+82 44 287 7445
yeon727@nst.re.kr

Jason Chan, Director
Elsevier Communications, APAC
+65 6349 0240
j.chan@elsevier.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1389458/Logo.jpg