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Read & Publish Agreements

Transformative agreements (or "Read & Publish" deals) are an evolution of the University's existing annual subscriptions with some publishers.  They are a funder-approved transformation of the paywall business model of publication.  OA charges are encompassed within the annual subscription fees paid by the Library.  Over a number of years, this enables the shift from subscription-based reading to open access publishing.  These deals are largely the result of a new initiative of a group of funders called cOAlition S whose Plan S principles have been adopted by funders worldwide.

Please note: the University only has Read/Publish deals for existing publisher agreements, there has been no new funding stream allocated for Open Access publishing.

Read & Publish Agreements for UoP authors

The Library has currently arranged the following deals that allow for open access publishing at no additional cost to authors. These deals below are open to all University of Plymouth corresponding authors regardless of funding status, unless otherwise specified in the description.

Please contact openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk with any queries.

Transformative deal eligibility requirements

  1. Corresponding authors  must be affiliated with UoP (NB: for Wiley this must be the Responsible Corresponding Author)
  2. Authors must submit with their UoP email address
  3. Authors must choose CC-BY licence (not any other CC option)
  4. Authors should submit their ORCiD

ACM Read and Publish Agreement

Publisher: ACM

Instructions:

  • This agreement period is until 31 December 2025.
  • Once an article is accepted, the corresponding author can select the option for Gold Open Access on the Author Services Dashboard - choosing Plymouth as your institution automatically applies the deal N.B. institutional email address must be used.
  • ACM instructions on corresponding author: "The corresponding author designation must be made in the conference or journal submission system and the corresponding author must include their primary affiliation and use their institutional email address. The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may additionally be stated. ACM will not update or change addresses after publication of the article."
  • The Library is automatically notified of your request with no further steps for the author.
Journals covered:  

All journals: hybrid & fully gold titles "All ACM conferences, journals, and magazines, for which ACM manages production and rights, are eligible for Open Access publishing"

 ACM Publications Eligible for Open Access Publishing
Eligibility:

University of Plymouth corresponding authors

Article Types: Research and Review Articles, Short Paper, Survey Articles, Technical Notes, Tutorials, Interviews, Notes.
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes, any UoP author can currently use this deal

American Chemical Society

 

ACS Read & Publish Agreements

Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)

Instructions:

This agreement period is until 31 December 2024.
Please note that ongoing negotiations between JISC and ACS to agree a renewal for January 2025 may impact ability to publish through this agreement - please contact openresearch@plymouth.ac.uk if you have a submission for this publisher due soon.

 

  • During Submission via ACS Paragon Plus, as a corresponding author, select your institution from a drop-down box and use your affiliated university email address.
  • Check that your institution affiliation is stated in the body of the manuscript as the corresponding author’s affiliation.
  • Complete the Journal Publishing Agreement to publish open access and retain copyright.
  • The Library will be alerted of your request
Journals covered:   All journals: hybrid and fully gold journals
Eligibility: University of Plymouth corresponding authors
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes, any UoP author can currently use this deal

APA

APA Jisc Agreement

Publisher: American Psychological Association(APA)

Instructions:

  • This agreement period is until 31st July 2026.
  • Submit your manuscript via the submission portal of the selected journal. Upon submission, the corresponding author must provide funder information and a Ringgold affiliation ID (for Plymouth, this is 6633).
  • If the submission is accepted, the author will be ushered through an open access and copyright approval process.
Journals covered:   All hybrid titles (fully gold journals are not covered in this deal)
Eligibility:

University of Plymouth corresponding authors

Article Types: Original peer-reviewed research article or review articles
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes, any UoP author can currently use this deal

BMJ Journals

BMJ Author Hub: Open access agreements for the UK

Publisher: BMJ

Instructions:

  • This agreement period is until 31 December 2025.
  • The University of Plymouth corresponding author should request Gold OA from the publisher at the point of manuscript submission. They must clearly state their UoP affiliation.
  • The Library is notified of the request and can approve it via a publisher dashboard.
  • APCs for eligible funded articles will be deducted from a consortium publishing fund on a first-come-first served basis. In order to meet funder requirements, Wellcome funded articles will continue to be covered even if the cap on this fund is met.
Journals covered:   See specific list of titles below - this deal does not cover any fully open access BMJ titles
Eligibility:

Funded University of Plymouth corresponding authors Please note this is the only read & publish agreement we have which is limited to funded authors only (limited to UKRI, specific Charity-funded or Wellcome)

Article Types: Original, primary research articles only
Are unfunded researchers covered? No - only submissions from funded authors are covered by the deal

Journals covered:

Cambridge University Press

 

Cambridge University Press Read & Publish agreement

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Instructions:

  • This agreement period is until 31 December 2025.
  • More information and instructions can be found on the CUP website.
Journals covered:   All journals: hybrid and fully gold titles.  Authors can check a title is covered: Journals covered by CUP Read & Publish agreement
Eligibility:

University of Plymouth corresponding authors.

Article Types: Original research: research articles, Rapid communications, Review articles, Brief Reports, Case Reports. See CUP's list of article type definitions for more information.
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes - any UoP author can use this deal

Elsevier

 

Elsevier Read & Publish deal 

Publisher: Elsevier

Instructions: 

  • This agreement period is until 31 December 2025.
  • Once your article has been accepted for publication, you will receive an email containing a link to the “post-acceptance author journey”. Upon selecting your publishing options, your affiliation will be validated by the University, and you will be informed if the APC will be covered by the agreement.
  • The process is straightforward, but an instructional video can be found here: Selecting Gold open access through Elsevier's read & publish agreement
Journals covered:  

Elsevier hybrid titles only, including Cell Press & Lancet titles (fully gold journals are not covered in this deal)

If you are not sure if the journal is hybrid or gold, search for hybrid Elsever journals here (if the search yields a result, the journal in question is eligible for the deal).
Eligibility:

University of Plymouth corresponding authors

Article Types: The deal covers Research and Review articles, Case Reports, Data in Brief, Microarticle, Original Software Publication, Protocol, Replication Study, Short Communication, Short Survey, Video Article, Practice Guideline. For Cell Press and Lancet journals, there may be other restrictions - see https://www.elsevier.com/open-access/agreements/jisc, under "What article types does the agreement cover?".
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes, any UoP author can currently use this deal

GSL

Geological Society Jisc Transitional Agreement

Publisher: Geological Society’s Lyell journal collection

This agreement period is until 31 December 2025.

Journals covered:   See specific list of titles below
Eligibility:

University of Plymouth corresponding authors
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes, any UoP author can currently use this deal

Journals covered:

IOP Publishing


IOP Transformative and Institutional Open Access Agreements

Publisher: IOP

Instructions: 

  • This agreement period is until 31 December 2025.
  • Author should state their affiliation clearly within both the article submission form and the article itself. 
  • IOP will identify eligible manuscripts at submission and automatically apply Gold OA.
  • The author will be notified of this during the peer review process and will be asked to agree to the CC-BY open access license.
Journals covered:   Eligible journals for Transformative Agreements (IOP). Lists A, B, and D from this list are eligible (fully gold journals are not covered in this deal).
Eligibility:

University of Plymouth corresponding authors

Article Types: All primary research article types as well as reviews: Letters, Papers, Reviews and Special Issue articles.
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes, any UoP author can currently use this deal

Microbiology Society

Microbiology Society Publish and Read

Publisher: Microbiology Society

Instructions: 

  • This agreement period is until 31 December 2026.
  • Any article published in Society journals where the corresponding author is from a Publish and Read institution will be OA by default.
  • The final text will be deposited to the Pubmed Central repository immediately upon acceptance.
Journals covered:   Specific list below
Eligibility: University of Plymouth corresponding authors
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes, any UoP author can currently use this deal

Journals covered:

Nature agreement (please note we participate in the hybrid Nature Portfolio journals Publish agreement ONLY).

Publisher: Springer Nature

Instructions:

  • This agreement period is until 31 December 2025.
  • The author guide can be found here: Author guide.
  • After acceptance, corresponding authors publishing with University of Plymouth affiliation will be presented with confirmation from the publisher that they can publish OA with the fees covered by UoP.
Journals covered:  

Hybrid Nature and Nature Research journals List of eligible Nature Portfolio journals  (fully gold journals are not covered in this deal).  Springer journals are not covered.
Eligibility:

University of Plymouth corresponding authors

Article Types: Original papers (which is the only applicable article type for Nature Portfolio journals.)
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes, any UoP author can currently use this deal

Oxford University Press


Oxford University Press Read & Publish agreement

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Instructions:

  • This agreement period is until 31 December 2025. 
  • More instructions on how to use this agreement can be found on the OUP website.
Journals covered:   All hybrid and fully gold journals though some Society titles may be excluded: View eligible journal list
Eligibility:

University of Plymouth corresponding authors

Article Types: Research and review articles
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes, any UoP author can currently use this deal

Sage

Sage Read & Publish Agreements

Publisher: Sage

Instructions:

  • This agreement period is until 31 December 2025.
Journals covered:   All hybrid titles: including IMechE and Royal Society of Medicine.  List of journals offering Sage Choice (fully gold journals are not covered in this deal)
Eligibility:

University of Plymouth corresponding authors

Article Types: The deal excludes some article types, for example book reviews and commercially sponsored articles.
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes, any UoP author can currently use this deal

Taylor & Francis

Guide to the deal with Taylor & Francis

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Instructions: 

  • This agreement period is until 31 December 2025.
  • The author does not need to do anything further to be eligible.
Journals covered:  

Hybrid titles only (fully gold journals are not covered in this deal)

If you are not sure if your title is hybrid, use the Taylor & Francis Open Access Cost Finder and search for the journal title (make sure to type the title exactly as it appears on the journal website).  Click 'Search', and next to the journal check under 'OA Status'. If the status is 'Open select', the journal will be eligible.
Eligibility:

University of Plymouth corresponding authors

Article Types: Original research articles (including Reviews, Reports, etc). Other types of paper, such as Editorials, Announcements, and Book Reviews, are not covered by this agreement.
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes, any UoP author can currently use this deal

Wiley

 

Jisc/Wiley Open Access Agreement

Wiley have implemented a 'Responsible Corresponding Author' status for authors. In order to qualify for the read & publish deal, the RCA must have University of Plymouth affiliation.

Publisher: Wiley

Instructions:

  • This agreement period is until 31st December 2025. 
  • Once your article is accepted, the corresponding author is able to select the option for Gold Open Access on the Author Services Dashboard - choosing Plymouth as your institution automatically applies the deal.
  • The Library is automatically notified of your request with no further steps for the author.
Journals covered:   All hybrid and fully gold journals.
Eligibility:

University of Plymouth "Responsible Corresponding Authors"

Article Types: Research and Review Articles
Are unfunded researchers covered? Yes, any UoP author can currently use this deal