OA Publishing Agreements

Open access publishing necessitates new business models and contracts that will fund the entire process in ways that are sustainable for researchers, publishers, and the universities which mediate between them. College and university libraries are taking an active role in negotiating new kinds of agreements with publishers that address the fees typically charged to researchers who want to publish their works openly.  These open access "transformative" or "transitional" agreements come in many forms and this page provides information and resources on the major ones. It also lists and explains the agreements which Adelphi University Libraries (AUL) has already reached or is close to reaching.

For a concise overview, see Lisa Hinchliffe's "Transformative Agreements: A Primer" (2020) and Tasha Mellins-Cohen's "Making Sense of Open Access Business Models" (2024) at The Scholarly Kitchen. For a look at the shortcomings of these agreements and what could possibly augment or replace them, see Alison Mudditt's "Transitional Agreements Aren’t Working: What Comes Next?" (2024).

To support faculty in their efforts to publish their scholarship open access (OA), Adelphi University Libraries negotiates agreements with publishers that provide access to subscription content and cover or reduce the costs normally associated with publishing an article OA. In most cases, one must be the corresponding author in order to qualify for an article processing charge (APC) waiver.

To date, Adelphi University Libraries has entered into such "read-and-publish" agreements with the following publishers:

Springer Nature

• Through our library consortium Lyrasis, AU corresponding authors are able to waive APCs on over 2,000 eligible journals.

Elsevier

• AU corresponding authors publishing in fully open Elsevier journals can receive a waiver of up to $2000 per APC. Step-by-step instructions for authors can be found here.

The Company of Biologists

• In addition to access to all five of their journals (3 subscription + 2 OA), AU corresponding authors will be able to publish APC-free in them.

Association for Computing Machinery

• Through ACM Open, AU corresponding authors can publish OA in ACM publications without library involvement or APCs if they use their AU email address.

The Biochemical Society (tentative)

• AU corresponding authors are eligible for unlimited OA publishing across all seven journals. 

For more information, please email Prof. Chris Barnes. Funding for APCs for fully open journals is also available through the Provost's OA Fund.