Open Access

Thieme and the Dutch Library Consortium UKB have concluded a Read-and-Publish agreement, with the Dutch cooperative association for educational and research institutions SURF serving as intermediary party. The agreement includes eleven leading Dutch universities and provides members of the participating institutions with unlimited read access to a total of 55 Thieme journals. In addition, associated scientists and authors may submit an unlimited number of Open Access scientific articles with no additional article processing charge (APC) and under a CC-BY license.

PeerJ, the award-winning Open Access publisher, is delighted to announce that Western University, Canada, has joined their Three-Year Fixed Term Memberships Program. Western becomes the fifth institution to sign up to the program, which offers an innovative alternative to Article Processing Charges for Open Access. Under the agreement, the cost of Three-Year Memberships for Western University-affiliated authors are waived, meaning no out-of-pocket fees for faculty members to publish in PeerJ’s seven journals. 

Springer Nature and Clarivate share a commitment to building an inclusive research culture and championing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the communities they serve, supporting Sustainable Development Goal 10 aimed at reducing inequalities.

The Company of Biologists is delighted to announce a partnership with the OA Switchboard which makes it much easier for our library customers to manage their Read & Publish agreements and to monitor the success of their Open Access (OA) strategy.

Hangzhou Aimeida BioTech Co., Ltd. and Hindawi have recently entered into a publishing partnership agreement whereby the latter will publish and develop a fully open access journal – Advanced Gut & Microbiome Research (AGMR) – led by an Editorial Board who are all active members of their community. The journal aims to publish research articles, reviews, short communications, and commentaries on all aspects of gastroenterology and microbiology, and their interactions. 

After years of being acknowledged as the world's leading publisher of Open Access books, today, we are proud to announce we’ve successfully launched a portfolio of Open Science journals covering rapidly expanding areas of interdisciplinary research.

Brill, the leading international academic publisher in the Humanities, Social Sciences, International Law, and Biology announces today that it has reached agreement with the shareholders of Wageningen Academic Publishers B.V. (WAP) to acquire all shares in the business.

As part of Washington State University Libraries’ renewal of their Wiley journal contract, WSU authors can now have articles published in roughly 1,400 different Wiley journals using an open access license without paying an article processing charge (APC). The service is available until the end of 2024, barring a cancellation of the Wiley package.

The open-access publisher Frontiers has acquired the journal Oncology Reviews from PAGEPress. The acquisition marks a significant milestone for Frontiers. It is the first journal the publisher has acquired since it was founded in 2007. Oncology Reviews is also Frontiers’ first proprietary Reviews journal, aiming to publish highly impactful reviews, thought-provoking editorials and opinion pieces.

Facilitated by FinELib consortium and commencing on 1st April, this three-year agreement will allow academics from participating institutions to utilize all the benefits of open access while enjoying simplified processes and discounted fees for their institutions while publishing with Frontiers, the world’s third most-cited publisher.  

Smaller independent publishers, libraries, and consortia can now more easily enter into Open Access agreements thanks to a set of new tools published by cOAlition S and the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP). Commenting on the publication of the toolkit, Colleen Campbell, coordinator of the OA2020 Initiative, said: “In order to foster a diverse, open scholarly publishing landscape, libraries and consortia need to broaden the scope of their negotiation strategies to embrace smaller independent publishers, but tailoring each agreement can take considerable time and resources. Shared standards and greater automation are required, and these tools give us a sound foundation from which to build.”

We continue to support UKRI’s open access policy, which will see all peer-reviewed research articles resulting from its funding made universally and freely accessible to people everywhere from today. The spirit of Plan S and the open access movement continue to make progress. UKRI should be commended for its position and support of open access’s original model.