University of Cambridge Open Access Publishing Agreements

Cambridge researchers can now publish open access with no charge in journals that are part of read & publish or transformative agreements.

The University of Cambridge is signing agreements with a growing number of publishers to enable researchers at the University to publish primary research and review articles open access.

These agreements are on a read & publish model: the publisher receives payment for providing access to their journal portfolio AND payment for publishing, bundled into a single contract.

What does this mean for you?

If a journal is covered by one the deals, you will not be charged open access fees provided your paper is a research or review article, and has a University of Cambridge affiliated corresponding author. Costs for open access publishing have been met centrally, arranged by Cambridge University Libraries (CUL) directly with the publisher.

Which journals are covered by a transformative agreement?

Currently the University has signed transformative read & publish agreements with 12 publishers, covering over 5000 journals.

Information about these publishers is provided on the University Open Access website, where you will also find a list of the journals where you can publish with no open access fee. This list is updated as further agreements are signed by CUL.

In recognition of the fact that learned society journals are important publishing venues for Cambridge authors, the University is actively supporting the transition to open access by subscribing to read & publish agreements with the Microbiology Society, The Company of Biologists, the European Respiratory Society, Portland Press/Biochemical Society, and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

What if the journal I want to publish in is not covered?

If you don’t find your required journal in the list, or if you opt not to publish in the journals covered by a read & publish agreement, you may make your research publications available in Apollo, the University of Cambridge’s open access repository, and in subject repositories, such as EuropePMC (where permitted by the publisher), in accordance with funder mandates and the Cambridge Open Access Publications Policy Framework.

Why the change?

Read & publish replaces the traditional model in which reading access is bought through subscriptions arranged by CUL, whilst article processing charges (APCs) for publishing open access are addressed individually on an ad hoc basis by authors.

By repurposing funding, the University, the publishers, and the research funders involved in these agreements are committed to significantly escalating the volume of research published open access. The agreements are known as transformative as they contribute to the global strategy to transition academic journals to full open access.

The aim of each agreement is to achieve, by 2024, 100% open access publishing for all UK HE authors opting to publish in journals in the agreements.

You can find more information about the reasons for these changes here.

Is it working?

Transformative agreements signed by the University of Cambridge enabled our researchers to publish over 900 papers open access in 2020.

Importantly, the process of publishing open access in these journals is now simpler for you.

For further information please visit the webpage on Open access agreements or contact the Open Access Team.

Who needs to know?

• All researchers
• Postgraduate students
• Librarians who support researchers
• Research support staff