SFU Library’s read-and-publish agreements with academic publishers, including brand new agreements with Elsevier and Oxford University Press, provide critical access to research and also enable SFU authors to save on open access publishing charges.

Representing a step towards more equitable open access scholarship, read-and-publish agreements allow SFU researchers to publish open access in eligible journals across multiple academic publishers at no or discounted cost. However, the agreements are intended to be transitional rather than a long-term solution that addresses the barriers of global open access publishing.

Waiving or discounting publishing costs for SFU authors

To cover editing and publishing costs, many open access journals charge authors a fee (an article processing charge, or APC). Over the past few years, SFU Library has secured read-and-publish agreements with multiple academic publishers, including Wiley, Sage Journals, Cambridge University Press, and IOP Publishing, that address APC costs. In addition to publishers providing access to research and scholarship (the “read” in read-and-publish agreements), through these agreements, the publishers also offer waivers or discounts on APCs for SFU researchers to publish in their journals – saving SFU authors over $459,000 in APCs in 2023. 

Highlights from 2023 agreements

Expanding the benefits: new agreements with Elsevier and Oxford University Press

As a Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) member institution, SFU Library has signed three-year read-and-publish agreements with two new publishers, Elsevier and Oxford University Press, starting in 2024. 

Joining our existing read-and-publish agreements, these new agreements also offer substantial benefits for SFU authors, including:

• No cost to publish in more than 350 Oxford UP hybrid journals
• No cost to publish in more than 1,800 Elsevier hybrid journals
• 10% discount on APCs in Oxford UP’s gold open access journals
• Discount on APCs in Elsevier’s gold open access journals (20% in 2024, 15% in 2025, and 10% in 2027)

Curious about open access terminology, including "gold open access"? Learn more at our guide Open access defined.

Looking towards a more equitable future for scholarly publishing

The benefits to SFU authors are considerable, and read-and-publish agreements (also known as transformative agreements or transitional agreements (TAs)), represent a step towards a more equitable scholarly publishing ecosystem – but they are not a solution to the global problem of paywalls and the barriers to open access publishing. 

“Transformative agreements are one way to currently support scholarly publishing and open access, but they should be a temporary measure,” shared Mar González Palacios, associate dean of collections and content strategy. “They are meant to be transitional.”

In theory, TAs allow research libraries and other institutions to financially support the transition of subscription-based journals to becoming open access. However, some librarians and scholars are concerned that commercial publishers have not yet released their transition progress or plans (Farley et al, 2021), and raise questions about who is ultimately benefiting from transformative agreements and high APCs (Haustein et al, 2024; Shearer, 2022; Butler et al, 2023). For example, most commercial publishers only offer discounts of 20-40% for gold open access (fully open access journals, as opposed to hybrid journals); these discounts, while potentially highly valuable for an individual researcher, still place the bulk of the cost with authors rather than publishers (Alperin, 2022). 

Even more critically, they perpetuate existing inequities in the scholarly publishing ecosystem, as the discounts and waivers are only accessible to authors who are connected with research institutions that can afford to sign TAs.

Currently, SFU Library is proud to support SFU’s learning, researching, and publishing through read-and-publish agreements with multiple major academic publishers. Looking forward, we aim to continue to find opportunities to support and advance an even more equitable scholarly publishing ecosystem around the world.

Want to know more?

• Two new transformative agreements to benefit SFU researchers (2024)
• SFU researchers to benefit from two new transformative agreements with Canadian Science Publishing and Wiley (2023)
• Transformative agreements come to SFU (2021)

References

Alperin, J. P. (2022). Why I think ending article-processing charges will save open access. Nature, 610(7931), 233. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03201-w

Butler, L-A., Matthias, L., Simard, M-A., Mongeon, P., Haustein, S. (2023). The oligopoly’s shift to open access: How the big five academic publishers profit from article processing charges. Quantitative Science Studies: 4(4): 778–799. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00272

Farley, A., Langham-Putrow, A., Shook, E., Sterman, L., &  Wacha, M. (2021). Transformative agreements: Six myths, busted. College & Research Libraries News, 82(7), 298. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.82.7.298

Shearer, K. (Aug 9, 2022). Transformative agreements are not the key to open access. Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/transformative-agreements-are-not-key-open-access