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Read and publish deals ‘drive increase in OA research content’


‘Read and publish’ agreements have led to a significant increase in the proportion of open access (OA) research content in hybrid subscription journals, according to the Company of Biologists. More than 400 institutions in 34


countries are now participating in the organisation’s Read and Publish Open Access initiative, with agreements signed with library consortia in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Spain, the UK and the USA. The Company of Biologists has also signed an agreement with EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries), which enables researchers in 30 developing and transition economy countries to publish OA articles in its hybrid journals without paying an article processing charge (APC). In 2021, OA research content increased


by 10 per cent in Development, 12 per cent in Journal of Cell Science and 15 per cent in Journal of Experimental Biology. This meant that all journals exceeded the transformative journal target for OA growth of 5 per cent. From 2022, institutions can also choose to include the fully OA journals, Disease Models & Mechanisms


and Biology Open, in their read and publish agreements. Claire Moulton, publisher at The Company of Biologists, said: ‘We have a long-standing commitment to OA and a track record of innovation. We were one of the first not-for-profit publishers to offer cost-neutral and uncapped read and publish agreements and our journals were the first from any publisher to be afforded transformative journal status. ‘Together, these initiatives are already


producing great results. Corresponding authors at over 400 institutions across five continents can now publish OA research articles without paying an APC. This has helped us to exceed our transformative journal targets in 2021. We look forward to continuing to work closely with our library partners and authors to increase the proportion of OA research content in our hybrid journals further, and to meet the ambitious growth targets we have set ourselves in 2022 and beyond.’


SAGE agrees southern Africa R&P deal


Through a transformative agreement, SAGE Publishing and the South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC) is to expand publishing opportunities for researchers in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. The three-year deal will provide


researchers with: • Open Access (OA) publishing rights, with no cost to the author in Hybrid journals within the current Premier collection; and • A discount on article publishing


charges for SAGE’s 150+ pure Gold Open Access journals.


Researchers at member institutions participating in the agreement will have access to SAGE’s collection of journals in the social and behavioural sciences and fast-growing list of science, technology and medical journals. With the help


34 Research Information Spring 2022


of SAGE’s Open Access Portal, such researchers will be able to: • Confidently submit their work in


compliance with both current and future OA requirements; • Be automatically contacted by


SAGE to make them aware of their publishing options; and • Manage the selection of OA licenses.


‘We’re delighted to partner with SANLiC and add to the significant and growing list of SAGE OA agreements,’ said David Ross, vice president of open research at SAGE. ‘This agreement allows access to vital research within both the social and behavioural sciences and technology and medical fields, in support of the learning, teaching and research activities of SANLiC members.’ Laila Vahed, chairperson of the SANLiC board, commented: ‘This is South Africa’s


fifth transformative agreement and the largest to date. It is a landmark agreement because SAGE is on our top 10 list as a reading and publishing venue. The publishing venues of choice for many of our researchers have been either closed, or require unaffordable author- facing charges for OA publishing. We are delighted that our researchers will now be able to publish fully OA in SAGE journals of their choice without author-facing charges, while retaining the copyright to their work.’ SAGE serves as a founding member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, as well as being one of two publishing partners in the European Commission-funded FP7 Framework project, the Study of Open Access Publishing. Additionally, in 2011 SAGE launched SAGE Open, the first broad- spectrum OA journal aimed specifically at the social and behavioural sciences.


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