The University of Edinburgh has signed transformative ('Read and Publish') agreements to enable corresponding authors from the University to publish eligible research articles open access for no extra cost.
Transformative agreements
Read and publish deals cover both subscription payments (allowing you to read) and open access article processing charges (allowing you to publish). They are known as Transformative Agreements because they aim to transition towards a full open access model.
Eligibility
To qualify for any of the deals below, the author must:
be a current University staff member or registered student.
be a corresponding author (ie. the author completing the online publisher forms).
use your University email address (@ed.ac.uk) when submitting articles to the journal (so that publishers can identify you as UOE-affiliated).
check the article type is covered by the deal (more detail on the terms of each deal can be found below).
Please be aware that the deals do not cover visiting, honorary or emeritus researchers because of licensing terms imposed by the national agreements.
You can find a searchable list of all journals included in our memberships and agreements here: Read and Publish Journals
We have signed agreements with the publishers (and eligible journals) listed below:
The library has signed up to a new three year agreement with ACM which runs until 31 December 2026. This agreement enables all corresponding authors affiliated with University of Edinburgh to publish with ACM on a completely open access basis without needing to pay any article processing charges (APC). To ensure your article is included in our agreement, the corresponding authors primary affiliation must be UoE and you must use your institutional email address. Eligible article types included in the agreement are as follows,
The library has a new Read and Publish agreement with AIP which runs from 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2025. Corresponding authors from Edinburgh can publish open access in any of AIP's hybrid subscription titles.
To ensure your article is included in our agreement, please follow these steps
Double-check that you are listed as the corresponding author, both in the online submission system and in your manuscript.
You’ll be asked to select your institutional affiliation as part of the submission process.
Upon acceptance of your manuscript, you will be able to choose and sign the CC BY
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is a premier scientific and professional organisation in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Its mission is to advance the atmospheric and related sciences, technologies, applications, and services for the benefit of society.
The library has signed up to a new transitional read and publish agreement with APS which runs until 31 December 2025, the agreement provides subscription access and unlimited Open Access (OA) publishing in the following APS titles:
Physical Review Letters
Physical Review A
Physical Review B
Physical Review C
Physical Review D
Physical Review E
Physical Review Applied
Physical Review Fluids
Physical Review Materials
APS automatically determines an article’s eligibility for OA publishing under the agreement based on the corresponding authors affiliation, to ensure your article is included in our agreement please use your university email address on submission.
The Library has signed up to a two year agreement which runs from 1 January 2025 until 31 December 2026. Corresponding authors from the University of Edinburgh can publish open access in all article types at no additional cost in the following titles,
Journal of Endocrinology
Journal of Molecular Endocrinology
Endocrine-Related Cancer
Reproduction
From 1 January 2025, corresponding authors can also publish in Bioscientifica's fully open access journals at no additional cost.
EFORT Open Reviews
Endocrine Connections
Endocrine Oncology
Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism Case Reports
European Thyroid Journal
Microbiota and Host
Redox Experimental Medicine
Reproduction and Fertility
Vascular Biology
Bioscientifica's other titles are not included in this Read & Publish deal and authors will have to pay individual Article Processing Charges (APCs) to publish in those journals.
The Library has signed up to a two year agreement which runs from January 2025 until 31 December 2026. Corresponding authors from the University of Edinburgh can publish open access in research, review articles and conference papers in all of Brill's journals (including Gold titles)
Submit your article to your journal contact at Brill with the request to publish in Open Access and indicate that you are an author affiliated with one of the eligible institutions in the United Kingdom. Once the article gets accepted it will be published in Open Access right away and free of charge.
If you submit your article through Editorial Manager, you will be asked during the submission process whether you are eligible for the agreement. Once the article is accepted, it will be published in Open Access right away and free of charge.
The library has renewed our Read and Publish transitional agreement with Bristol University Press which runs from 1 January 2025 until 31 December 2026, the agreement covers all Bristol University and Policy Press titles and applies to corresponding authors from Edinburgh publishing original peer-reviewed research. (Other research outputs may be considered in line with funder policy mandates.)
The library has extended the transitional agreement with Cambridge University Press for a furher year until 31 December 2025. The agreement is uncapped and includes publishing in hybrid and fully open access journals for the following article types; Research, Review Articles and Rapid Communications (RRR), Brief Reports and Case Reports.
The library has renewed the transitional agreement for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press journals until 31 December 2025. This agreement offers corresponding authors from Edinburgh unlimited open access publishing for research and review articles in the following journals,
The library has signed a new agreement which runs from 1 January 2025 until 31 December 2026 allowing corresponding authors at the University of Edinburgh to publish an unlimited number of Open Access articles in the Company of Biologists three 'hybrid' journals plus their two fully open access titles:
Development
Journal of Cell Science
Journal of Experimental Biology
Biology Open
Disease Models & Mechanisms
The Library has extended the current agreement with De Gruyter until 31 December 2025. This agreement allows corresponding authors from the University of Edinburgh to publish their research and review articles open access at no additional cost. The new agreement includes De Gruyter's hybrid, gold open access and Subscribe to Open (S2O) titles
The library has extended the current Read and Publish agreement with Elsevier until 31 December 2025. Corresponding authors affiliated with the University of Edinburgh may publish open access in any of Elsevier’s participating hybrid journals at no charge to the author. Eligible article types include, Case reports, Data in Briefs, Full-length articles, Micro-articles, Original software publication, Practice guidelines, Protocols, Review articles, Replication studies, Short communications, Short surveys, Video articles. Please note that this agreement does not include additional page or colour charges, if applicable, these costs will have to be paid separately.
Fully open access titles are not included in the agreement, however, corresponding authors publishing in fully open access titles are entitled to a 15% discount on the total APC.
Please note: When publishing in eligible hybrid Cell Press journals and TheLancet full length articles are the only eligible article type, review articles and short survey article types are not eligible.
We are supporting the EMS Press by participating in their Subscribe to Open (S2O) 2024-2026 initiative where you can publish open access for no fee in participating journals.
Twenty-one titles published fully open access under S2O in 2023, alongside a further three Diamond open access publications.
Future Science Group's Read & Publish transitional agreement allows corresponding authors from Edinburgh to publish open access in their 17 hybrid and 16 Open Access journals. The agreement includes all article types with the exception of Drug Evaluation articles and plain language summaries of publications (PLSPs) funded by pharma/biotech companies (unless funded by UKRI). The agreement runs from 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2025.
The Geological Society’s Lyell Collection ‘Read & Publish’ Agreement allows immediate open access publishing of the Version of Record for articles in the 9 hybrid journals and book series in the collection. Open access publishing is unlimited for corresponding authors at the University of Edinburgh, on all article types under CC-BY licence terms until December 2025. Corresponding authors must use their institutional email address in order to be identified as eligible. The titles included in the agreement are:
IOP Publishing (IOP), Jisc Collections and universities within the UK have come to an agreement until 31 December 2025 which enables corresponding authors from the University of Edinburgh to publish their work on an open access basis at no additional cost. Research articles and reviews (letters, papers, reviews and special issue articles) accepted for publication after 1 Jan 2023 are eligible, IOP will automatically identify qualifying articles and inform authors of their inclusion.
IWA Publishing (IWAP) has transitioned its subscription journals to open access via the Subscribe to Open (S2O) model. Corresponding authors affiliated with Edinburgh are eligible for immediate open access publishing in all 14 IWAP journals.
Corresponding authors who submit to any John Benjamins journal between 1 January 2025 and 31 December 2026 (if accepted for publication, and regardless of when it is published) are eligible to have the open access fee waived under our Read and Publish agreement
Affiliated corresponding authors from the University of Edinburgh can publish open access with the Microbiology Society for no extra cost. Corresponding authors from the University of Edinburgh will be identified using their email domains. Where a corresponding author’s email domain matches that provided for a Publish and Read institution, we will ask the author to sign our standard CC-BY Creative Commons licence and will publish their article OA without further charge, and without embargo. Authors retain the right to opt out of publishing their articles as OA. Please visit the Microbiology Society web pages for more information on how to take advantage of the agreement:
The Library has signed up to a new two year agreement with Oxford University Press which runs from 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2025. The agreement allows unlimited open access publishing for corresponding authors from University of Edinburgh in both hybrid and fully open access journals.
Eligible article types include, research articles, review articles, brief reports and case reports. Article-commentary types are not considered eligible.
Please note that the following titles charge page/colour charges and/or submissions fees, these charges cannot be paid from the UKRI, Wellcome, CRUK or BHF block grants,
Edinburgh researchers who submit to Cerebral Cortex should mention in their cover letters that Edinburgh has a Read & Publish arrangement with OUP, and the authors can request a waiver of colour figure charges and page charges. Each submission will be evaluated on a case by case basis
Corresponding authors from the University of Edinburgh will have their manuscripts (if accepted following peer review) published open access by default under a Creative Commons license
The Portland Press unlimited read and publish has been renewed until 31 December 2025 and allows full access to and unlimited open access publishing in the following titles:
The Library has signed up to a new two year, unlimited Read & Publish transitional Agreement covering the three Rockefeller University Press hybrid journals. The deal will run from 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2026
Journal of Cell Biology (JCB)
Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM)
Journal of General Physiology (JGP)
To be eligible for the agreement, corresponding authors must be from the University of Edinburgh.
The Library has extended its current agreement with RSC until 31 December 2025. This agreement makes all articles written by University of Edinburgh corresponding authors open access immediately at no extra cost. The agreement covers articles published in any of the RSC hybrid journals (except Chemistry Education Research and Practice).
To make sure you can benefit from this agreement, please ensure that you:
Are listed as the corresponding author both in the online submission system and in your manuscript;
Use your official institutional email address to submit your manuscript;
State your institute affiliation and email address in your manuscript and do not change this after submission;
DO NOT sign the standard licence to publish during the submission process, you should fill out an open access CC-BY licence which will trigger the open access publication of the article under this agreement
The University of Edinburgh has renewed ‘Read & Publish’ transitional agreement with Royal Society Publishing which will run from 1 January 2025 until 31 December 2025. This agreement allows corresponding authors from the University of Edinburgh to publish in the Royal Society’s full journals package of 8 hybrid and 2 open access journals at no additional cost. Corresponding authors must use their institutional email address in order to be identified as eligible and the agreement applies to all articles submitted from 1 January 2021.
The current SAGE agreement has been extended until 31 December 2025. This agreement allows corresponding authors from Edinburgh to publish open access in participating SAGE subscription journals. Eligible article types include original research articles, reviews and case reports.
Authors in subscription journals do not need to take any action to benefit from this offer. SAGE will contact all eligible authors to inform them of the Open Access agreement with SHEDL and to invite them to the SAGE Open Access Portal to take up the offer as soon as their accepted article has been received into SAGE’s Production department.
Please note that fully open access/gold journals are not included in the agreement but corresponding authors publishing an article in a gold open access journal are entitled to a 20% discount on the prevailing article processing charge (APC).
Following a year-long negotiation led by Jisc, UK universities have agreed a new, three-year read and publish agreement with Springer Nature which will run from 1 January 2023 until 31 December 2025. To be eligible for the agreement, corresponding authors must be from the University of Edinburgh and publishing in a hybrid Springer or Springer Nature journal. Fully open access titles are not included in the agreement, however, corresponding authors publishing in fully open access titles are entitled to a 15% discount on the total APC.
Springer hybrid agreement: article types include, original research and review articles, brief communications and continuing education articles.
Springer Nature hybrid agreement: applies to Original Papers (article type may also be referred to as analysis, article, letter, brief communication, registered report, resource or technical report)
The library has signed a new two agreement with Taylor and Francis which runs from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2025. Corresponding authors affiliated with the University of Edinburgh can publish open access in publishing in Taylor & Francis hybrid journals, fully OA journals, F1000 and Routledge Open without paying any article processing charges (APC)
Corresponding authors affiliated with University of Edinburgh can publish primary research and review articles in any of Wiley's fully gold open access journals and Wiley’s hybrid (subscription-based) journals which offer open access with no further open access costs to the author. The current agreement runs from 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2025.
The library has signed up to a new 2 year Read and Publish agreement with Wolters Kluwer which runs from 1 January 2025 until 31 December 2026. Corresponding authors from Edinburgh can now publish open access for no fee in Wolters Kluwer's Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Total Access Collection
Institutional memberships
All corresponding authors from the University of Edinburgh can publish open access with the following publishers for no extra cost.
The library has signed an Institutional Membership with Cogitatio, a fully open access publisher. Corresponding authors from Edinburgh can now publish in any Cogitatio journal at no cost.
The University of Edinburgh has opted to support the Open Library of Humanities for another year- this time as a Gold level supporter. This additional support will enable the OLH to continue its growth mission to convert subscription journals to a solid, ongoing, open-access model, with no author-facing charges. Corresponding authors from Edinburgh can publish in any of OLH 33 fully open access journals at no cost.
The University of Edinburgh has signed up to two new agreements with PLOS which run from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. The PLOS Global Equity 2025 and the PLOS OA Flat Fee Agreement allow for uncapped publishing for University of Edinburgh authors publishing in 11 PLOS journals;
SCOAP3 is a partnership of over 3,000 libraries and library consortia, universities, research institutions and funding agencies working to provide open access to high energy physics journals without author fees. Authors publishing in SCOAP3 journals can publish open access at no cost
Other agreements
(UKRI, Wellcome, CRUK and BHF funded authors only)
UKRI and Wellcome Trust, CRUK and BHF funded authors are eligible to have their open access costs covered by pre-pay schemes or central billing schemes set up with the following publishers.
The University has extended the agreement with BMJ for a further year until 31 December 2025. To be eligible for the agreement corresponding authors must be affiliated with the University of Edinburgh and funded by UKRI, Wellcome, CRUK and BHF . The agreement includes all BMJ hybrid journals and BMJ's fully open access titles and a full list of all eligible article types can be found at the link below.
We have a central billing agreement with Frontiers for authors acknowledging UKRI, Wellcome Trust, CRUK and BHF. Unfortunately, we cannot pay Article Processing Charges for anyone else.
The University of Edinburgh is part of MDPI's Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP). If you mention funding from UKRI, Wellcome, CRUK or BHF at the time of submission then the Scholarly Communications Team will be able to pick it up on the membership dashboard and make it open access without any more input from the author.
Help & Support
If you have any queries about open access please contact the Scholarly Communications Team who are on hand to help.
