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UC Libraries Read & Publish Deals

This guide serves as a hub for information regarding the Read and Publish deals happening in UC Libraries. Details regarding publishers, journals, and criteria for eligibility are below.

Available Publishers

  • SPIE - New in 2025!
  • Royal Society of Chemistry - New in 2025!
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) - New in 2025!
  • American Institute of Physics
  • Cambridge University Press
  • Company of Biologists
  • Elsevier
  • IOP (Institute of Physics) 
  • IWA (International Water Association) Publishing
  • Microbiology Society
  • Springer
  • Wiley

See below for details. 

Current 'Read & Publish' Opportunities

Key Details:

  • Regardless of the publisher or journal, in order to be eligible for the APC waivers, the corresponding author must be affiliated with the University of Cincinnati. 
  • When submitting an article, you must use your uc.edu email address for the approval process. See the University Email Policy for additional information.
    • Note, UC Email partners are also valid email domains. See this link for a full list. 
  • If submitting to a publisher with limited waivers, the waiver will not be "spent" until the paper is accepted for publication. In other words, the waivers are not executed at the time of submission, but rather at time of acceptance. 

Currently, UC has eleven publisher-specific 'read and publish' agreements.

To learn more about Read & Publish deals, or what are sometimes referred to as "Transformative Agreements", check out the article linked below:

Elsevier

New for 2024, UC faculty, staff, and students can publish hybrid OA articles in most of Elsevier’s hybrid journals at no additional cost. Some journals are excluded from open access publishing benefits, such as Cell Press and Lancet journals. 

Search for eligible journals using Elsevier's journal finder tool for the OhioLINK agreement.

Full-length articles, micro-articles, review articles, case reports, data in brief, original software publications, practice guidelines, protocols, replication studies, short communication, short survey, and video articles are eligible for open access publishing in any of the eligible hybrid journals under this agreement. To qualify, the article must be accepted for publication from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2027. 

This open access publishing benefit is subject to availability. There is a maximum number of articles that may be published open access annually across all OhioLINK institutions. Once the limit is reached, the option to publish articles open access at no cost under the agreement will no longer be available. 

See OhioLINK's Elsevier OA Publishing: Information for Authors page for additional information.

Springer

New in 2024, UC faculty, staff, and students can publish hybrid OA articles in Springer's eligible hybrid journals at no additional cost. 

There are over 2,000 eligible hybrid journals from Springer, Adis, Palgrave and academic journals at nature.com. Not Included are Nature portfolio journals such as Nature itself, other 'Nature' titled journals (e.g., Nature Cancer) and Scientific American.  Also, fully open access journals are not included.  For the most up-to-date list, check the spreadsheet below. 

The following article types are eligible for the hybrid open access publishing benefits.

  • Original Paper – Standard article, generally presenting new results which may also be referred to as Original Research, Original Article, Original Paper or Research Paper.
  • Review Paper – Standard article, interpreting previously published results.
  • Brief Communication – Short article submitted for rapid publication that exhibits the same structure as a standard article.
  • Continuing Education – Article forming integral part of further education (usually medical).

The eligibility dates for the agreement are January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2026. With this agreement, there is a maximum number of articles that may be published open access across all OhioLINK institutions. Once the limit is reached, the option to publish articles open access at no cost under the agreement will no longer be available. 

Please see OhioLINK's Springer OA Publishing: Information for Authors page for additional information. 

IOP (Institute of Physics) Publishing / Electrochemical Society (ECS)

70 IOP Publishing journals, including selected Electrochemical Society journals, are eligible as part of UCL's Read & Publish deal.  (UC / OhioLINK's agreement includes journals in Lists A, B, C, D)

Eligible journals include:

Agreement runs from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025.

Use the IOP Journal Finder to identify the best journal in which to publish. Once you select the journal, follow the step-by-step guide to publish under UCL's transformative agreement. Also see OhioLINK's Frequently Asked Questions and Information for Authors page. 

Wiley

As a member of OhioLINK, UC students, faculty and staff have the ability to publish Open Access journal articles in any of Wiley's hybrid or fully open access journals.

Also see OhioLINK's Frequently Asked Questions and Information for Authors page. 

The eligibility dates for the agreement are January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2026. 

Starting My 17th, Wiley is changing its processes for applying for APC coverage in its fully open access journals (also referred to as “Gold” journals).  With this change, requests for APC coverage made at submission are provisional until confirmed following acceptance for publication and are subject to availability and verification of institution affiliation.

  • TIP: Since the OA publishing process undergoes various levels of approval, it is best to assign a corresponding author that is expected to have employment or student status with UC for the immediate and on-going future. The process can be a bit slow as the journal editors and publishers move an article to publication. A corresponding author no longer with UC could result in the remaining author(s) needing to pay APC (article publishing charges) to get published open access.

Cambridge University Press

Our Read & Publish deal with Cambridge Uni. Press allows users to publish articles in either a fully gold open access journal or a hybrid journal.  In order to be eligible for this deal, you must be the corresponding author of the article. Eligible article types include: research articles, review articles, rapid communications, brief reports, and case reports. Journals included are:

Use the Cambridge Open Access Funding lookup tool to find all eligible journals and determine the best journal in which to publish. Also see OhioLINK's Frequently Asked Questions and Information for Authors page. 

American Institute of Physics

With this agreement you can publish research articles in hybrid OA journals only. Eligible journals include:

The full list of AIP's hybrid OA journals that are eligible for open access APC waivers is here. AIP's Read & Publish author guidelines can be found here. 

Company of Biologists

UC faculty, staff, and students can publish hybrid OA and fully OA articles.This deal includes all CoB titles:

Check out their Guide for authors for more information: https://www.biologists.com/library-hub/read-publish/guide-for-authors/ 

Microbiology Society

Our Read & Publish deal with Microbiology Society includes unlimited open access publishing in their journals. Find more info here: https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/publish-and-read 

Journals included are:

IWA (International Water Association) Publishing

The University of Cincinnati is a supporting partner in IWA's Subscribe to Open (S2O) transition to open access. As a benefit, UC authors can publish in the IWA journals free of charge. Eligible journals include:

Learn more about IWA open access publishing here. 

SPIE 

Unlimited OA publishing in any of SPIE's 15 journals for UC affiliates. Important: Any UC author can publish open access at no cost in SPIE journals, not just the corresponding author. 

Eligible journals include:

Agreement runs from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2027.

American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

All journals in ASME's portfolio are available for unlimited open access publishing for UC affiliates. Learn more about Open Access with ASME here. A sample of eligible journals include:

Agreement runs from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2027.

Royal Society of Chemistry

All journals in the Royal Society of Chemistry's portfolio are available for unlimited open access publishing for UC affiliates. See this flyer for details on the RSC OA publishing process. Learn more about read and publish with RSC here. Eligible journals include:

Agreement runs from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2027.

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