Renewal Offers for 2023 Subscription Year

In order to confirm renewals, the CAUL Consortium is now seeking offers for Continuing Content Purchase for the 2023 subscription year.

Procurement Agreement Principles for 2023 Renewals

In 2021, CAUL Procurement released a set of Agreement Principles additional to the Principles and Framework for Pricing Digital Content, for the 2022 subscription year. These principles have been revised for guidance to Publishers and Vendors on CAUL’s needs and expectations for agreements for the 2023 subscription year including prioritising the transition to Open Access.

The principles acknowledge the ongoing hardship due to pandemic related issues for many CAUL Consortium Members, and the need for sustainable agreements to allow for minimal price increases, and a return to multi-year agreements where warranted.

For 2023, CAUL requests that Vendors and Publishers consider the following:

Agreements include no more than minimal price increases [1].
Journal agreements should include Open Access publishing options within existing subscription spends, and accurate associated data including all Gold and Hybrid APC payments. Only agreements including Open Access will be considered for new journal agreements.
Multi-year agreements may be considered but must include for penalty-free opt out clauses and be opt-in (and not all-in). Multi-year agreements must clearly show the cost benefit to CAUL members for a multi-year commitment.
Members may seek guidance from academic and administrative stakeholders with regard to any proposed increases beyond minimal.
No non-disclosure clauses.
Maintenance of all ongoing access arrangements (a.k.a Perpetual Access, Post Termination Access) and existing user types, (Alumni, Walk-in etc).
Renewal pricing must include all sites, campuses, and locations at no extra cost [2].
Agreements and pricing must be made available for all CAUL Consortium Members regardless or location, or member type (UA, CONZUL or External).
All licences for full text content should include CAUL’s Model Clause for resource sharing [3] and include Text and Data Mining provisions at no extra cost.
To only collect user data for the purposes of provisioning and administering services.
All licence changes should be as per CAUL instructions on licence change notification and submitted by August 31. Licence changes submitted after this date will not be considered. CAUL Model Licences should be used where available.

Please note: No offer should reference CAUL unless it is an agreed offer listed in ConsortiaManager.

[1] Increases should be no more than the 2021 education CPI (0.6%)

[2] Total FTE counts include fully enrolled students across all campuses, onshore and offshore, as per official numbers provided by DESE and TEC (NZ). When it comes to eResources, Universities have only one site: Online.

[3] Publishers for full text content not able to include CAUL’s model clause will need to provide a statement detailing why they are not able to meet Australian legal requirements for resource sharing. The statement will need to include legal advice from the publisher as to why the clause cannot be included.

Submitting Renewal Offers

Vendors should complete and submit their renewal offer via the CAUL 2023 Agreement Vendor Response Form. Vendors will need to complete all required fields in the form as instructed. Vendors are able to create user accounts to enable saving work in progress prior to final submission.

The offer should only be submitted via the response form. The response form replaces all previous methods of submission of documentation (the selected licence terms form used previously is no longer required). The form will request vendors upload the following files:

The ConsortiaManager pricing spreadsheet emailed directly to the primary contact
Where prompted, upload these files in the response form:
- The Open Access data file including all Gold and Hybrid APC payments (where applicable)
- "Red-line" version in MS Word showing tracked licence changes
- MS Word or Excel format showing previous licence clauses and new or changed clauses
- Title lists
- Any vendor documents such as proposals, product documents, brochures (optional)
- Licence template for members to use for 2023 Agreements

Renewal Offer Contents

Instructions for Completing ConsortiaManager Pricing Spreadsheet

Use the Excel spreadsheet template generated from ConsortiaManager, which will be automatically emailed to providers soon after the invitation to supply offers opens.

Important: Please do not re-use ConsortiaManager generated spreadsheets from previous years as they will not load into ConsortiaManager. Please only edit columns “K” (“List Price”) and “L” (Price). Please make no other changes to the spreadsheet.

Please feel free to send additional pricing model spreadsheets, including formulae, to show how pricing has been calculated that can be uploaded into ConsortiaManager.
Please use correct names for Consortium Members as detailed on the CAUL website.

Information about Sample Licence Agreement and Terms & Conditions

Please detail licencing changes (as compared with previous licence), as instructed on the submission form.
Sample Licence Agreement will be uploaded to ConsortiaManager for review by Consortium Members prior to take up.
Upon offer take-up, Consortium Vendors should issue a version of this Licence Agreement, tailored with each member’s institutional details, to each Consortium Member for signing
Consortium Vendors should issue Consortium Members with a countersigned (digitally or physically) Licence Agreement within a reasonable timeframe.

Roll-over Agreements

Please note: Vendors wishing to renew via the roll-over agreement, do not need to fill in the CAUL 2023 Agreement Vendor Response Form as detailed above.

Aim: Quickly process smaller agreements to free up time to focus on larger complex agreements (including Read and Publish agreements).
- Create efficiencies for CAUL and smaller vendors/publishers.
Applies to vendors/publishers where:
- Total consortium spend is less than AUD $500,000
- Pricing meets CAUL's procurement agreement principles
- CAUL Resource Sharing Clause included in licence for full-text agreements
- No other licence or product changes from the previous licence
Actioning a roll-over renewal:
- Email Alisha Ashley (CAUL Finance and Procurement Officer) requesting a roll-over renewal, price increase percentage and provide a licence including CAUL Resource Sharing Model Clause.
- CAUL will email the 2023 pricing spreadsheet to vendors with 2023 pricing already listed, and copies of previous year’s documents confirming what will be shared with members.
Note: Vendors eligible for a roll-over can follow the full renewal process outlined above if they prefer.

Key Dates

Please note: CAUL may change dates according to member needs and providers will be alerted to this via email. Should a particular offer progress quickly, the next steps will advance without delay or regard to the key dates, as the dates have been set to simply guide the process, provide appropriate cut-off points and ultimately to ensure a smooth and timely experience for both Consortium Vendors and Consortium Members.

Category A: Key dates for agreements where CAUL invoices Members on behalf of Vendors:

29 April 2022	Vendors invited to begin submitting renewal subscription offers to the CAUL Consortium as per Agreement Guidelines. The Excel pricing spreadsheet template generated from ConsortiaManager will be auto-emailed to you separately.
May, June 2022	Offers, including content scope, pricing and licencing terms, refined through negotiation by CAUL and progressively uploaded to ConsortiaManager for members to begin reviewing
1 July 2022	Last day for vendors to submit offers for the 2023 subscription year
July/August 2022	CAUL uploads last batch of offers to ConsortiaManager for members to review
31 August 2022	Last day for Offers including sample Licence Agreement, to be uploaded to ConsortiaManager for members to review
July to September 2022	Members complete their review and consideration of Offers
14 October 2022	Last day for members to confirm renewal or new uptake of Offers
Mid October 2022	Orders to vendors placed by CAUL directly from ConsortiaManager
October 2022	Vendors begin issuing licence agreements to members. Vendors begin issuing invoices to CAUL
24 October 2022	Last day for vendors to issue 60-day group invoices to CAUL
28 October 2022	Last day for CAUL to issue 30-day invoices to members
9 December 2022	Last day for members to pay CAUL invoices
13 December 2022	Last day for CAUL to pay vendor invoices

Category B: Key dates for agreements where Vendor’s invoice Members directly:

Please note: Invoicing via CAUL available on existing agreements only. For the 2023 subscription year the CAUL Consortium is seeking to move agreements to be invoiced directly by vendors wherever possible.

29 April 2022	Vendors invited to begin submitting new and renewal subscription offers to the CAUL Consortium as per Agreement Guidelines (see below). The Excel pricing spreadsheet template generated from ConsortiaManager will be automatically emailed to you separately.
May, June, 2022	Offers, including content scope, pricing and licencing terms, refined through negotiation by CAUL and progressively uploaded to ConsortiaManager for members to begin reviewing
15 July 2022	Last day for vendors to submit offers for the 2023 subscription year
July to September 2022	CAUL uploads last batch of offers to ConsortiaManager for members to review
30 September 2022	Last day for Offers including sample Licence Agreement, to be uploaded to ConsortiaManager for members to review
July to October 2022	Members complete their review and consideration of Offers
11 November 2022	Last day for members to confirm renewal or new uptake of Offers
Mid November 2022	Order confirmations to vendors sent by CAUL directly from ConsortiaManager
October/November 2022	Vendors being issuing licence agreements to members. Vendors begin issuing invoices to members
25 November 2022	Last day for vendors to issue 30-day invoices directly to members
16 December 2022	Last day for members to pay vendor invoices

Useful Information on the CAUL Website

List of Content Coordinators representing CAUL Consortium Member institutions (includes contact details, IP addresses and latest published FTE numbers)
Information for Consortium Vendors (discipline-specific FTEs, sample pricing models and information about the ConsortiaManager application)
CAUL Statement on Open Scholarship (specifically in relation to content acquisition)

Key Contacts in the CAUL Office

Offers should be submitted via email to the CAUL Consortium.
Enquiries regarding offers, pricing and licensing should be sent via email to Angus Cook, Director, Content Procurement.
Enquiries regarding ConsortiaManager, orders, invoices and payments should be sent via email to Alisha Ashley, Finance & Procurement Officer.

Author Alisha Ashley

Last modified 5 May 2022

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