Read and Publish: Next Gen OA Updates

11-04-2025

Opinion piece: A united front is crucial in securing a more equitable future for scholarly publishing

In March negotiations began between the five largest publishers of journal research and JISC – representatives of the Higher Education sector, on how UK universities continue to access and publish in open access journals.

Collaboration and inclusivity key to shaping next-generation open access - Jisc

As the negotiations continue, JISC will be consulting with the sector on publisher proposals to meet the aims of a more sustainable and equitable future for scholarly publishing. BCU is playing an active role in these consultations to ensure our views as a teaching-led and research informed institution are represented. On Monday, a cross-BCU working group met in order to bring our academic colleagues up to date on the progress of negotiations and why they are important to BCU.

It is crucial that the sector maintain a united front and negotiate as one to secure affordable ejournal deals in which our authors can publish Open Access regardless of access to funding.

Universities UK (UUK) have played a key role in shaping JISC's negotiation aims and BCU Library supports those aims to secure a more equitable future for scholarly publishing and we ask that academic colleagues support ours and the sector’s stance.

BCU currently has a Read and Publish deal with all five big publishers - Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Wiley and Sage, along with three more deals - Welcome - Read and Publish - Subject Guides at Birmingham City University.

While these deals have provided savings for the UK Higher Education Sector and allowed for high rates of Open Access compliance with funder and REF mandates, our collective ability to fund ever increasingly expensive large e-journal subscription deals in times of financial pressure for the sector is increasingly unsustainable. The per-article models favoured by these deals has also been exploited by some publishers to drive up costs through increased article output.

JISC is negotiating for deals that make public funded research open for readers and allow researchers to publish their work Open Access regardless of their access to funding. In order for negotiations to be successful it is important the sector maintains a united front and we support JISC's aims for a more equitable knowledge creation ecosystem. Equitable is more affordable! 

The Library is preparing a set of mitigations should a deal prove unaffordable, including scenario mapping of alternatives and provision of rapid document delivery through our inter-library loans service.

How you can help:

• Talk to your Library Business Partner - Library Business Partners - Academic Staff Guide - Subject Guides at Birmingham City University

• Ask the Library for Briefing resources to help spread the message to your colleagues

• Keep up to date by following this blog!

• Feedback to your Associate Dean of Research or to your contact in the BCU OA Working Group

26-02-2025

Jisc's ‘next generation open access programme’ drives these negotiations, accelerating the transition to a more sustainable and inclusive publishing models. It’s two overarching goals are:

1. Achieving cost savings and long-term financial sustainability by securing agreements that reflect the sector’s financial realities.
2. Broadening participation in research by promoting equity and inclusivity in research dissemination.

Further details of Jisc's strategy and timeline for the negotiations can be found here - Next generation open access (Jisc).

BCU currently has access to eight Read and Publish agreements, including Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Sage and Wiley -  Publish - Read and Publish - Subject Guides at Birmingham City University. These deals allow read access to the publisher's journal collection and also grant access to Open Access Publishing for our authors without the need for additional payments, commonly known as Article Processing Charges (or APCs).

Keep an eye on this blog to stay up to date with the latest news on sector negotiations. Library & Learning Resources will also be circulating regular update via our Business Partners in their meetings with faculty and at relevant BCU committees.

If you have any queries please feel free to get in touch with your department's Business Partner or email us at elibrary@bcu.ac.uk.