Open access publishing is increasingly important for academics – it’s a great way to make research more discoverable and increase the equity of article access. However, despite making research freely available to all online, it can come with a hefty price tag for the author via Article Processing Charges (APCs). Through the Library’s participation in Read and Publish Agreements, Curtin University academics have increased opportunity to get their research published open access without having to pay Article Processing Charges.
Our Library has had Read and Publish Agreements in place since 2021. These agreements have been negotiated on behalf of Australian universities by the Council of Australian University Librarians and offer a practical route to open access publishing available to all Curtin staff and students. The agreements repurpose existing subscription expenditure to cover both reading and publishing in selected journal titles from that publisher.
While open access publishing is available through a variety of avenues, Read and Publish agreements are a convenient way for academics who want to publish their research to a global audience without personally incurring the cost of APCs.
The list of publishers participating is growing each year, and the Library regularly evaluates which agreements to participate in. In 2023 we added the American Institute of Physics, the Institute of Physics, Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, and Sage Publishing to the list. We are currently a participating institution with the following publishers:
- American Institute of Physics
- Cambridge University Press
- CSIRO Publishing
- Elsevier
- Institute of Physics
- Karger
- The Royal Society
- Sage
- Springer-Nature
- Taylor & Francis
- Wiley & Hindawi
To be eligible to participate in the Read and Publish agreements authors need to be affiliated with Curtin University and be the corresponding author. Participating publishers will use the author’s Curtin email address to determine eligibility. Participating in the agreements has resulted in APC savings of over 1.8 million dollars between January 2022 and July 2023.
There are many benefits to publishing open access. It means that research reaches a wider audience and can be more easily discovered by industry as well as other researchers. If you would like further information, a presentation, or a workshop about Read and Publish agreements, please contact the Library on LibraryResearchSupport@curtin.edu.au.
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