OA Book Initiatives

JSTOR Path to Open
UR Libraries are pilot participants in Path to Open from JSTOR. This pilot provides frontlist unlimited, DRM-free access to select university press books every year. Three years after publication, the titles will then be released openly to the world. [View current and upcoming titles].
This funding model provides libraries with affordable access to diverse, high-quality frontlist titles; supports small and medium university presses in open access publishing; help authors reach a global audience; and advance equity of access to underserved researchers around the world. [JSTOR | About]
University of Michigan Press Fund to Mission
Participating VIVA institutions will receive perpetual access to 2023 frontlist content (about 80 titles) while contributing to making them OA. Approximately 75% of the 2023 frontlist titles have been converted to OA. VIVA institutions will also have term access to the entire backlist of 2,000 titles.[More Information - Title List/]

Bloomsbury Open Collections This project aims to make 20 research titles per collection available OA. If fully funded, 60 titles will be completely Open Access. Participation also includes access to 150 backlist titles.

African Studies & International Development
Gender & Sexuality
Environment & Climate Change

Open Access & Faculty Scholarship

A guide to issues in scholarly publishing, open access, copyright, author rights, and digital archiving

SciFree Search

NEW search tool - SciFree - identifies if UR Libraries has a licensing agreement for OA (Open Access) publishing with a journal. Search by publisher, journal title, ISSN, or subject to find journals included in our OA Licensing Agreements.

OA licensing agreements allow publication (with OA access) free of charge or where APC (Article Processing Charges) are paid by UR Libraries' transformative read and publish agreements.

Publishing Models

Publishing Models: The following publishing models identify an academic journal's terms of access that users have to the journal's published content. The terms are based both on how an author/university pays for the journal and how the content of the journal can be accessed.

Open Access: All content published is free to read.
Closed Access: Subscription-based access only.
Hybrid: A mix of both subscription and open access options are available.
Transformative (Read and Publish): A journal that offers both subscription and open access options however the journal is committed to transforming 100% of its content to an open access publication.

APCs | Transformative Agreements

UR Faculty and Staff are eligible for discounted or free Open Access publishing (often known as "Article Publication Charges" or APCs) from the following publishers.

UR Libraries participates in most of these initiatives through VIVA, Virginia's Academic Library Consortium. The full list of VIVA Open Access Initiatives can be found here: https://vivalib.org/va/collections/openaccess.

Instructions for authors are included at each link, but you are also welcome to contact UR Librarians with any questions.

American Chemical Society (ACS)
UR has joined ACS's OA publishing initiative for primarily undergraduate institutions PUI). Corresponding authors can publish in ACS journals without cost. Authors that are collaborating with researchers from another organization should confirm that they will act as the submitting corresponding author to qualify for this program. [Author Resources]
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) (VIVA OA Agreement)
Corresponding authors at UR will be able to publish articles in ACM journals, magazines, and proceedings as Open Access (OA) at no fee (the agreement does not include books or book chapters) from October 1, 2021 to December 31, 2024. [Author Resources]
Cambridge University Press (VIVA OA Agreement)
Corresponding authors at UR will also be able to publish journal articles open access at no cost from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025. This includes almost all of the CUP journals; around 12 are not allowing open access at this time. [Author Resources]
Company of Biologists
UR Libraries has licensed a five-year journal Read & Publish package through 31 Dec. 2026. This includes the following journals: Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology, and the fully Open Access journals: Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open. [Author Resources]
Institute of Physics (IOP) (VIVA OA Agreement)
Corresponding authors at UR will be able to publish articles in IOP journals, not including the American Astronomical Society (AAS) journals, at no fee from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024. [Author Resources]
International Water Association (IWA) (VIVA OA Agreement)
VIVA has a three-year read and publish agreement with the International Water Association (IWA) that will allow corresponding authors at all VIVA institutions to publish open access articles in IWA journals and expand reading access for this content as well. Corresponding authors at VIVA institutions will be able to publish journal articles open access at no cost from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025. [Author Resources]
MDPI Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP)
UR authors will receive a 10% discount on APC fees for accepted articles in MDPI journals. [Author Resources]
PLOS (Public Library of Science)
VIVA has started a two-year institutional partnership with PLOS in their Flat Fee Agreement, which allows corresponding authors at participating institutions to publish open access articles in seven PLOS journals at no cost: PLOS Complex Systems, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Digital Health, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS ONE, and PLOS Pathogens.
Royal Society of Chemistry
This agreement enables all corresponding authors affiliated with participating academic institutions to publish open access (OA) in more than 40 RSC scholarly journals, both fully OA and hybrid, with no publishing fees or limits on OA articles published. The agreement also provides reading access to the full RSC Gold package of 50-plus scholarly journals. Authors who publish OA under this agreement can publish under a CC BY or CC BY-NC open license. [Author Resources]
SAGE Transformative OA Agreement
NEW Corresponding authors at UR are able to publish open access articles with no APC fees in 900+ subscription journals in the Sage Premier and Gold packages. [Author Resources]
Springer Nature
VIVA has started a two-year transformative agreement with Springer Nature that will allow corresponding authors at participating institutions [UR is a participant] to publish open access articles in Springer Hybrid journals at no additional cost, as well as reading access to more than 2,350 Continuing Access journals. [Author Resources]
Taylor & Francis
COMING in 2025 . Details to come in 2025!
Wiley (Access to joint VIVA fund for APCs)
Researchers from any participating VIVA institution (including UR) are able to publish Open Access articles using a central fund to cover author publication charges (APCs). Funding is distributed on a first come first serve basis. More details are available at the linked FAQ.

Boatwright Memorial Library

OA Book Initiatives

Open Access & Faculty Scholarship

SciFree Search

Publishing Models

APCs | Transformative Agreements