Max Planck Society Ends Elsevier Subscription

The Max Planck Society, an enormous German research organization 14,000 scientists strong and comprising multiple research institutes, has ended its subscription to Elsevier journals, the organization announced in a statement on December 18. It did so in support of the German open-access initiative called Project DEAL, after unsuccessful attempts to negotiate an open-access agreement with the publisher. The organization’s digital library will no longer have access to Elsevier’s approximately 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, once the subscription expires on December 31.

Ten principles for the responsible use of university rankings

Ten principles for the responsible use of university rankings

University rankings are controversial. There is a lot of criticism on well-known rankings such as the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), commonly referred to as the Shanghai Ranking, and the World University Rankings of Times Higher Education (THE) and QS.
Nevertheless, universities often feel that they are under pressure to
show a good performance in these rankings and universities may therefore
pay considerable attention to these rankings in their decision making.

The Ten Principles are intended to guide universities, students,
governments, and other stakeholders in the responsible use of university
rankings.