Open Access

Open Access and Read and Publish Agreements

A read-and-publish agreement, also known as a transformative agreement or open access agreement, is an agreement between an institution and a publisher. Under the agreement, the institution pays the publisher an amount for access to its journals. In return, the publisher allows researchers from the institution to publish articles in those journals without any costs to the researchers, like article processing charges or open access fees.

Open Access Publishing Agreements at UD

The following agreements are available to University of Delaware authors. These publisher partnerships and agreements allow eligible UD-affiliated researchers to publish open access without paying article processing charges (APCs). Be sure to check the journal eligibility requirements for each agreement below.

Cambridge University Press

UD-affiliated corresponding authors can publish open access in eligible Cambridge journals at no cost.

• To be eligible:
  • The corresponding author must be affiliated with UD (or another participating institution)
  • The article must be a covered type (e.g., research articles, review articles, case reports)
  • The journal must be included in Cambridge’s Read & Publish agreement
• Check if your journal is covered using the Cambridge’s Eligibility Checker
• For more information, please visit here.

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)

APCs are fully covered for all hybrid journals. Authors also receive a 15% discount on APCs for gold OA journals.

• Use the RSC journal finder and put UD as the institution to find journals covered by this agreement
• For more information, please visit here. 

Springer Nature

UD-affiliated corresponding authors can publish open access at no cost in Springer Nature’s hybrid journals.

• See the list of eligible journals under the “Publishing open access in a hybrid journal” section on this page.
• For more information, please visit here.

American Society for Microbiology (ASM) - Subscribe to Open (S2O)

No APC fees for articles published in ASM’s six Subscribe to Open (S2O) journals. Page charges and supplemental material fees still apply.

• Journals covered by the ASM's S2O Model:
  • Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy®
  • Applied and Environmental Microbiology®
  • Infection and Immunity®
  • Journal of Bacteriology®
  • Journal of Clinical Microbiology®
  • Journal of Virology®
• For more information about fees and eligibility, please visit here.

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) - ACM Open

UD-affiliated corresponding authors can publish open access at no cost in ACM journals, conference proceedings, and ICPS publications.

• To be eligible:
  • Corresponding author must use their UD (or participating institution) email address at submission.
    • Eligibility will be recognized automatically by the ACM system during the eRights form process when using your UD email address as the corresponding author during submission
• See eligible article types for open access publishing under ACM Open here.
• Review eligibility criteria and exceptions here
•   For more information, please visit here.

Publishing Fee Discounts

UD authors may get a discount on publishing open access with the following publishers:

• MDPI: 10% discount on all MDPI journals for UD authors
• BioMedCentral: 15% discount on article processing fees for BMC journals and SpringerOpen journals for UD authors.
  • When using the 'Submitting from outside institutional IP ranges' option, the BMC discount should be automatically applied during submission as long as you use your UD email address and are the corresponding author. Make sure you use your UD email when submitting. The 'Submitting using a membership account number (submission code)' method is an alternative, but we do not use it and do not have a submission code to share. 
• Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC): 15% discount on APCs for gold OA RSC journals
• SAGE: 10% discount on APCs for Gold open access journals for UD corresponding authors. Eligible authors will be contacted by SAGE with instructions on how to take advantage of the offer, as long as the corresponding author is affiliated with UD.

For full details, please visit the publishers' websites. Typically, you will need to use your UD email address and be a UD-affiliated corresponding author when applying for discounts upon article submission. These are percentage discounts only and do not fully cover APC fees.

Springer Nature and BioMedCentral Agreements and Discounts Explained

Understanding these agreements and discounts can be confusing, especially since "Springer Nature," "Nature," "BMC," and "SpringerOpen" are all part of the same larger company but are often treated as separate entities. Here's how our current agreements work:

1. Springer Nature Hybrid Journals:

Our agreement fully covers Article Processing Charges for thousands of Springer Nature's hybrid journals. You can find a list of eligible journals under the "Publishing open access in a hybrid journal" section on the Springer Nature webpage.

2. BioMedCentral and SpringerOpen Journals:

SpringerOpen is the name Springer Nature uses for its fully open access journals. Our agreement provides a 15% discount on APCs for these SpringerOpen journals and BMC journals, but APCs are not fully covered as they are for Springer Nature hybrid journals.

3. Nature Journals:

The Nature or Nature Portfolio journals (e.g., Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Energy) are not included in our current agreements, and APCs for these titles are not covered.

Quick Recap:

• APCs are fully covered for Springer Nature hybrid journals.
• A 15% discount applies to BMC and SpringerOpen journals.
• No coverage is currently provided for APCs in Nature Portfolio journals.

If you're unsure about a specific journal or need guidance, please feel free to contact us. We're happy to help!

For more information about our agreements and discounts, please visit our Agreements and Discounts page.