Jisc and Taylor & Francis Agree New Open Research Deal for UK

Two-Year Transformative Agreement Offers More Publishing Options to Researchers at UK Universities

Jisc and leading publisher Taylor & Francis have renewed an open research (OR) agreement offering significantly more publishing options for researchers.

Building on the previous transformative agreement (TA), which supported thousands of UK researchers to publish open access (OA), the ‘Taylor & Francis Read and Publish 2024-25’ agreement aims to foster OR practices and further increase the impact of UK research, especially in the humanities and social sciences (HSS).

As one of the largest HSS publishers, the renewal with Taylor & Francis is particularly important in providing a route to OA for HSS researchers who do not typically benefit from the same levels of funding as their peers in the science, technology and medicine disciplines.

The two-year deal enables researchers at participating institutions to publish OA in more than 2,400 Taylor & Francis journals including, for the first time, 248 fully open access titles and open research publishing platforms F1000 Research and Routledge Open Research.

Caren Milloy, director of licensing at Jisc, said: “This renewed and improved agreement means that HSS UK research articles can be published immediately OA and be free to reuse. Successful TAs reduce spend and make funded research available openly at speed and scale, playing a crucial role in facilitating the transition to fully OA across all fields and subjects.”

Alex Robinson, Chief Commercial Officer at Taylor & Francis, said: “We’re very grateful for Jisc’s help in designing an exciting new partnership which extends both reading and OA publishing elements, as well as introducing joint initiatives to promote the uptake of open research.”

“Agreements like this one are key to driving the transition to an open future by supporting the use of innovative publishing options and making open an easy choice for researchers in all fields, not just those with dedicated OA funding.”

The existing agreement ended on 31st December 2023 and the renewed agreement term has been shortened to two years to allow a flexible and dynamic response to the Jisc-led review of transitional agreements in the UK and future requirements for OA agreements in the UK. All Jisc member institutions are eligible to sign up.