STM Publishing – May 2022
Transformative agreements
The past month has seen another avalanche of open access and transformative deals from publishers. Wiley, which this month signed the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) to improve how outputs from scholarly research are evaluated, has concluded new open access agreements across three continents. A three-year deal with Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the publisher’s first in Latin America, will enable researchers to publish across Wiley’s portfolio of hybrid journals. An agreement with French consortium COUPERIN will give researchers at 130 member institutions read-access to all Wiley’s hybrid and subscription journals alongside the ability to publish OA in all of its 1400 hybrid journals. And a deal with the South African Consortium SANLiC will provide read-access to all Wiley journals and OA publication in all hybrid journals, as well as – as part of a pilot scheme running from January 2023 – all Wiley’s gold OA titles, including those published by Hindawi.
SAGE has signed its first read-and-publish agreement with an American institution. The two-year deal with Penn State University Libraries provides PSU researchers with the opportunity to publish APC-free in SAGE’s hybrid and Gold OA journals and read-access to almost all the publisher’s titles.
Springer, which this month announced that it would be changing the names of 21 of its German language titles to become gender-neutral, has signed its largest ever institutional OA book deal. The three-year agreement with the Max Planck Society will provide affiliated authors from more than 80 Max Planck Institutes with discounts on Book Publishing Charges (BPCs), alongside central funding from the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL).
German medical and science publisher Thieme has agreed a three-year read-and-publish deal with the Dutch Library Consortium UKB, whose members will now have unlimited read-access to 55 of the publisher’s journals and APC-free publication rights in all Thieme’s gold OA journals and 34 of its hybrid titles.
The Company of Biologists has concluded a three-year read-and-publish agreement with Sweden’s Bibsam consortium providing access to the full archive of the company’s hybrid subscription journals and APC-free publication in all hybrid and fully OA titles.
Frontiers has confirmed four new open access publishing agreements. A three-year deal with the Consortium of Catalan University Services will offer participating institutions a 10% discount on publishing in Frontiers journals; a deal with the University of Greifswald will offer researchers there a 7.5% discount, while an agreement with Wake Forest University School of Medicine offers a 15% discount. An institutional membership agreement with Adam Mickiewicz University will enable affiliated researchers to publish at no cost.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) has agreed a four-year read-and-publish deal with three consortia from California to provide full access to subscription content and support for OA publication across more than 75 journals. A three-year deal with the UK’s Jisc consortium will offer researchers fee-free OA publication in all ACS journals.
The Royal Society of Chemistry has extended its existing transformative agreement with Jisc to the end of 2024, covering all anticipated publishing output in the RSC’s hybrid journals.
Journals
The Royal Society of Chemistry is launching three new journals themed around sustainability. RSC Sustainability, Sustainable Food Technology and EES Catalysis will address global sustainability challenges from a range of perspectives; all three will be Gold OA, with the RSC covering all article processing charges (APCs) until mid-2025.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is launching two new journals: ACS Applied Engineering Materials and ACS Applied Optical Materials.
Cambridge University Press is to partner with the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and the European Association of Decision Making to publish their psychology journal, Judgment and Decision Making.
Frontiers has acquired the journal Oncology Reviews from PAGEPress; it is the first journal acquired by the publisher since its launch in 2007.
In brief
67 Bricks has announced a new partnership with Bone & Joint Publishing to create a new journal content delivery platform, alongside other user-facing digital products.
PLOS will be collaborating with The East African Science and Technology Commission (EASTECO) and the Training Centre in Communication (TCC Africa) to support the implementation of Open Science and Open Access principles in the countries of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Uganda.
Emerald Publishing will be focusing on commissioning Indigenous research this year, particularly regarding issues faced by Indigenous communities. There will be a specific focus on increasing equity, diversity and inclusion for research participants overlooked in research design, knowledge holders whose contribution has been neither recognised nor rewarded, and academics who have not had the same opportunities as their counterparts.
Alastair Horne is a lecturer in publishing studies at the University of Stirling.