What is a Read & Publish agreement?

Read & Publish agreements (also referred to as transformative or transitional deals) are agreements between publishers and institutions, which are often negotiated at consortia level (e.g., Jisc negotiate on behalf of the UK higher education community). 

The deals enable researchers at participating institutions to publish their research open access at no additional charge. This is because the deals cover the cost of reading as well as open access publishing in one lump sum. 

The deals have different eligibility criteria, although the typical eligibility criteria are:

• The corresponding author is employed by a participating institution
• The paper is either a research paper or a review paper
• The paper was submitted (or sometimes, accepted), during the term of the agreement
• The journal participates in the deal (not all of the deals cover a publisher's entire portfolio). 
• If a deal is capped, the cap has not been reached

The University maintains a journal checker, which authors can use to determine if the journal they wish to publish in is covered by a deal. There is also an overview of the University's current deals.