Publish in open access: the transformative agreements

The UOC’s transformative agreements

Any questions? Contact us at ciencia_oberta@uoc.edu

Why

In 2021, the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) reached an agreement with the major publishing groups to improve the terms of access to their journals. Under these agreements, the fees paid by institutions cover not only reading articles but also open-access publication in certain journals, something that was previously only possible by paying an APC.

As a result of these agreements, the universities have a set of credits available for open-access publication of articles in certain journals.

The UOC, as a member of the Catalan University Services Consortium (CSUC), can benefit from the agreements with Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Emerald and IEEE.

These new contracts, whose main aim is to promote open science, are designed to provide a starting point for academic open-access publication to be free by default.

APCs

The publishing sector contains a great number of journals that offer their articles in open access as the default option, making them available to everyone. The Institutions (for example universities, public bodies or non-profit organizations) that are responsible for many of these journals cover the publication costs.

However, this system exists in parallel with another: some publishing groups charge researchers a fee (known as an Article Processing Charge, or APC) to publish in open access.

At the same time, they also charge universities to read their content, typically though subscription packages.

This is what is known as double dipping, where universities end up paying both for publishing (APCs) and reading (subscriptions).

The negotiations

Similar to negotiations that have been conducted in other European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) have been in talks with three major publishing groups, seeking to put into practice their commitments to open science.

Eligibility

Credits and discounts for open-access publication fees are available to UOC researchers and doctoral students. If you wish to apply, you must meet the following requirements:

You must be the lead author of the article. If the article has several authors, the application must be made by the corresponding author.
You must be a member of the UOC when the article is accepted by the publishers.
You must have an ORCID iD uniquely identifying you as the author of the article. We can help you get one.
You must have an active profile on GIR, the UOC Researchers' Portal.

Applications from doctoral students who are not registered on GIR or who don't have an ORCID iD may also be accepted.

How it works: step by step

The process is automatic and will entail no additional work for you or delay the publication of the article.

Submit your article

Submit to your chosen journal. If the journal is cover by an agreement, once the peer review has been successfully carried out, approval of the credit will be proposed to the UOC by the publishers themselves.

Make it clear in your article that you are a member of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and use your UOC email address.
Your application will then be reviewed by the UOC

The University will approve or reject the application based on whether there are any credits available and whether the requirements contained in the publication guidelines approved by the Research and Innovation Committee have been met.

One credit will always be earmarked for each faculty and research centre.

If there are more applications than credits and discounts available, the Research and Innovation Committee may establish additional criteria, such as giving priority to articles whose research focuses on the interaction between humanities and social sciences, education, health and technology.
Decision

The journal informs the researcher of the outcome. If refused, the researcher will be responsible for covering the APC (as has been the case to date), which is normally paid by their research group.

You must deposit a copy of the publication on the UOC's O2 repository via GIR.

Journals where you can publish

See the full list of journals and the terms of the agreement applicable to each publishing group.

Alternatives to paying for articles: open access

Discover more tools and search engines for finding open versions of articles link opens in a new window

Catalan Research Portal - CSUC link opens in a new window

Take a look at the research work being done at research centres in Catalonia, with a special focus on open access publications.

O2 Repository UOC, the institutional repository link opens in a new window

The portal for collecting, disseminating and preserving the open-access digital publications produced by members of the UOC as part of their research, teaching and management work.

Unpaywall link opens in a new window

Browser (Chrome/Firefox) extension that uses the DOI to help you find contents and versions of open-access scientific and academic documents.

Discount publishers

1. Frontiers

Corresponding authors with UOC affiliation apply 10% discount. The cost of the APCs will depend on the type of magazine and the type of article.

2. MDPI

Corresponding authors with UOC affiliation apply 10% discount. The cost of the APCs will depend on the type of magazine and the type of article.

3. Bentham Science

The publisher offers a 30% discount on APCs for all participating institutions. The discount is applicable to all subscription and Open Access magazines of the publisher. It also applies to books published with the publisher