Research support
Read and Publish agreements
Learn more about Read and Publish agreements and our partner publishers.
Alongside supporting open access publishing initiatives, Library and Learning Services have some transitional agreements with publishers.
Transitional agreements are also known as Read and Publish agreements. They provide access to the publisher's subscription journals while also allowing our researchers to publish research articles with that publisher immediately open access (OA) without any article process charges (APCs) or with discounted/capped APCs.
Hybrid journals: A subscription access journal in which some of the articles are open access (OA).
Gold journals: Journals where all articles are immediately OA as authors have (usually) paid article processing charges (APCs).
Green Open Access route: A self-archiving open access model where the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) is deposited onto an institutional repository on formal acceptance by the publisher. This route is one of the two open access routes available in Hybrid Read and Publish journals.
Gold Open Access route: The Version of Record (VoR) is made open access immediately on publication. This route is one of the two open access routes available in Hybrid Read and Publish journals, and the only publishing route available in Gold Journals.
Publishing requests
A majority of the Read and Publish agreements offer free or discounted open access publishing in hybrid journals, depending on the assigned open access route. Due to increased costs of publishing across the higher education sector and changing research landscape, York St John will assign more publishing requests in eligible hybrid journals the Green Open Access route under Rights Retention. This enables the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to be made open access immediately on publication under a CC BY licence, avoiding any post publication embargoes and allowing authors to retain copyright to the AAM version. See the Rights Retention page for more information.
All publishing requests for the deals are handled and assessed on an individual basis, with the open access route decided by considering the following factors:
The publisher deals differ on eligible journal types - a majority offer hybrid journals only and others offer selected gold journals.
Gold journals which are part of the deals will be assigned the Gold Open Access Route automatically (subject to funds and article allocation allowances).
Gold journals not part of the deals will require an Article Processing Charge (APC) to be published open access. Please note that gold journals can only offer the Gold Open Access route and do not have a self-archiving route (Green Open Access). Neither the Library nor Research Office hold funds for APCs. Please see the APC section below for more information.
All requests must be within scope of the REF criteria (outputs must be listed as 'original' or 'research' articles). Review articles, commentaries and supplementary material in hybrid journals will be automatically assigned the Green Open Access route under Rights Retention.
Although there are no additional publication charges for authors in read and publish deals, all publishing requests under the Gold Open Access route incur a cost for the University. Eligible hybrid journals using the Gold Open Access route result in a VAT cost of the Article Processing Charge (APC).
In contrast, the Green Open Access incurs no additional charges. VAT costs over £550 are likely to be assigned the Green Open Access route under Rights Retention (subject to other journal conditions and criteria).
Postgraduate researcher (PGR) lead authors will be automatically assigned the Green Open Access Route for hybrid journals. Applying Rights Retention will allow the AAM to be made open access on publication with no post publication embargoes. PGRs must have their academic supervisor as a co-author.
Casual, visiting and associate staff will be assigned the Green Open Access route for hybrid journals. Those registered with York St John email accounts can apply Rights Retention.
Staff who conducted research and submitted the related research output while at York St John but are no longer affiliated with the institution and have York St John co-authors will be considered on a case-by-case basis, considering the other criteria.
Journal publication metrics will also be considered - journals with fewer volumes or long publication processes may be considered for the Gold Open Access route. This will depend on REF compliance and eligibility and taking the additional criteria into account.
Journals and publishers
The University currently have deals with 9 publishers.
All agreements are subject to change, and each publisher deal differs. Please see below for more information.
The Library is unable to provide full lists of Read and Publish journals on an individual basis. This is due to the number of journals across the 9 publishers and possibility of journals changing open access model.
We recommend searching the publisher platforms in the first instance. Please confirm with ray@yorksj.ac.uk prior to submission to ensure that the journal is eligible.
Unlimited OA publishing of research articles and conference proceedings in ACM Open titles.
Unlimited OA publishing in CUP hybrid and wholly gold journals.
Unlimited OA publishing in Elsevier hybrid journals including the Cell Press and Lancet titles.
15% APC discount when publishing in Elsevier gold journals (discount processed by the Library but returned to bill payer).
Please contact RaY (ray@yorksj.ac.uk) before submitting a publication using this deal. This is to confirm which journals are eligible for the deals.
OA publishing in most Oxford University Press journals, subject to a consortium cap.
To ensure your article is published immediately OA, please follow the OUP author workflow guide (PDF, 1.25 MB).
Unlimited immediate OA publishing in 7 PLOS journals:
- PLOS ONE
- PLOS Genetics
- PLOS Pathogens
- PLOS Computational Biology
- PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
- PLOS Digital Health
- PLOS Complex Systems
Unlimited OA publishing in SAGE hybrid journals.
20% APC discount when publishing in SAGE Gold journals (discount processed by Library but returned to bill payer).
Further information for SAGE journals can be found on the SAGE website.
Please contact RaY (ray@yorksj.ac.uk) before submitting a publication using this deal. This is to confirm eligibility of journals at the time of submission.
Unlimited immediate OA publishing in Springer Compact hybrid journals.
The agreement includes Springer, Adis and Palgrave Macmillan titles.
Please contact RaY (ray@yorksj.ac.uk) before submitting a Springer publication. This is to confirm if a journal is part of the University's Springer package and eligibility of journals at the time of submission.
Immediate OA publishing in Taylor & Francis hybrid (Open Select) journals, subject to a consortium cap.
Immediate OA publishing in all Wiley journals, subject to consortium fund availability.
Article Processing Charges (APCs)
If Green or Diamond OA routes or Read and Publish agreements are not available or appropriate, only then should you consider an APC.
If APC funding is required, researchers should check with their relevant academic school about the availability of funding or ensure any research funding will cover the costs of an APC payment. If you have received research funding, check that your funder permits using research funds to pay for an APC. Please note, neither Library and Learning Services or the Research Office have a budget to pay for APCs.
When considering APCs check that fees are clearly explained, that the information is easy to find on publisher websites, and that there are no additional or hidden costs. A lack of information could indicate a predatory publisher.
Book Processing Charges (BPCs)
A book processing charge is a payment to the publisher for a whole book to be made open access.
Like APCs, the Library and Learning Services team and the Research Office do not have a budget to fund any BPCs. Researchers should check with their academic school about research funding.
