Open Access

With 20 years of action in the Open space, SPARC Europe is embarking on a year-long process to create a broader open agenda by connecting Open Science and Open Education. Making this connection has benefits for research, education and society. Through this work, SPARC Europe will help European public universities realise the value of open, equitable and fair access to knowledge for all.

The Transformative Journal (TJ) model was one of the strategies cOAlition S developed to help subscription publishers transition to full and immediate Open Access (OA) in a defined timeframe. This report looks at the data provided by the participating publishers for the calendar year 2023. 

Among the journals in the DG2O program that will switch to open access in the coming year are particularly renowned titles such as the Historische Zeitschrift, founded in 1859, the Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, first published in 1888, as well as esteemed periodicals committed to critical perspectives on socio-political questions such as Analyse und Kritik (founded in 1979) and feministische studien (founded in 1982).

The Public Library of Science (PLOS) is pleased to announce a consortium agreement with Consorcio Colombia / Consortia facilitated by Accucoms, that allows joining member institutions to participate in PLOS’ three innovative publishing models across all 14 PLOS titles. The agreement provides researchers from affiliated institutions unlimited publishing privileges in PLOS journals without incurring fees.

On 10 June 2024, swissuniversities signed a comprehensive Open Access agreement with Elsevier on behalf of the Swiss universities and other mandating organisations. The agreement with Elsevier guarantees to members of Swiss universities and participating organisations a full reading access to Elsevier's entire journal portfolio.

Open access publisher JMIR Publications, in partnership with Sweden's academic consortium Bibsam, with sales support by Accucoms, recently announced a landmark national agreement to eliminate the burden of article processing charges (APCs) for researchers in Sweden.

Leading global healthcare knowledge provider, BMJ, continues to expand its open access (OA) footprint worldwide through new Read and Publish (R&P) agreements. These partnerships signify ongoing efforts to enhance access to cutting-edge research and promote knowledge sharing for the global research community.

Authors at 42 members of the HEAL-Link (Hellenic Academic Libraries Link) consortia can now publish their research open access at no cost to them in any of ACS’ premier chemistry journals.

Wiley, one of the world’s largest publishers and a global leader in research and learning, today announced a new partnership with OA Switchboard, a community-driven initiative that facilitates information sharing about open access publications between funders, institutions and publishers. 

BioOne, the leading nonprofit aggregator in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences, is proud to announce the first wave of publishing partners to commit to its 2026 Subscribe to Open (S2O) pilot. To date, 20 titles from 13 societies, museums, and independent presses have confirmed their participation, with up to 50 more eligible to join throughout the 2024 signup year.

The European Commission has finally published a full guide to advise researchers on grant agreements for the EU’s current research and innovation funding programme, Horizon Europe, which started in 2021.

The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) acknowledges the recent release of the report, “Improving access to and reuse of R&I results”, authorized by the European Commission. While STM fully agrees with the intent of the PPMi-led effort, the trade organisation has multiple concerns with the final report and its characterization of access and re-use in Europe, as well as with the preparation phase and process.