Last updated: April 28 2025
Since January 2025, there have been changes in the access to some Library resources (journals).
The University did not renew its 'big deal' subscription with Elsevier, which expired on 31 December 2024, or with the American Chemical Society (ACS), which expires 30 April 2025.
The Library has worked with academic schools to ensure that your recommended readings are made available by alternative access and reading list links have been updated.
For your individual study and research, we still have instant access to a lot of Elsevier and ACS material through other arrangements.
InterLibrary Loan via StarPlus
Search for a journal article in StarPlus. Toggle the 'search beyond Library collections' option that is on the top left side of the StarPlus results page (below Refine My Results) to include articles that are no longer available in the Library’s collection. You can then use the InterLibrary request link to generate a request form for any article that is no longer available in fulltext. More information - .
LibKey Nomad browser extension
The LibKey Nomad browser extension flags up open access journal articles, as well as articles we subscribe to, when you’re browsing the web. You will also see a link to click through and check access options in StarPlus.
A manual is also available from the My Services menu in MUSE.
If you have any questions or queries, please contact us:
library@sheffield.ac.uk (with link)
Read on for further information about the Elsevier decision (statement of December 2024)
Like a number of universities around the world, we have concerns over the sustainability of the current commercial scientific publishing model, which is increasingly unsustainable for the higher education sector and makes a lot of publicly-funded research inaccessible.
We are working with JISC, the national body that negotiates publisher deals on behalf of the sector and other partners, including the N8 partnership of research-intensive universities, to move to a more sustainable, equitable and open alternative to large journal subscription deals.
With this in mind, we have taken the decision not to renew our Elsevier subscription. Elsevier is a large publisher and the big deal journal subscriptions no longer represent value for money for our university, taking up funds that could be used to better support research, teaching and learning.
Our Elsevier subscription will expire on 31 December 2024. This will not affect our ability to publish in Elsevier journals. We are also identifying critical and high-use Elsevier journals and setting up individual read-only subscriptions for them. This will be based on the current usage of titles and whether they appear on reading lists for degree programmes.
The University Library provides access to a million e-books, 60,000 journal titles and more than a million print volumes, and we will continue to add new materials that support our education and research.
Whenever our journal subscriptions are due for renewal, we look closely at their usage, whether they are meeting the needs of our students and staff and if they provide value for money. We will continue to do this to ensure spending on Library resources supports our vision for research and education.