UW Libraries Blog

February 4, 2021

New Agreement Covers the Costs of Publishing in Open Access Cambridge University Press Journals for UW Authors

Gordon Aamot Director, Scholarly Communication and Publishing

The University of Washington and Cambridge University Press have entered into a transformative “read and publish” agreement to promote Open Access publishing. Negotiated with our consortial partners in the Orbis Cascade Alliance, the agreement is designed to maintain UW’s access to Cambridge’s outstanding journals while also supporting the Libraries’ strategic goal of Advancing Research for the Public Good by making UW scholarship available to more readers and researchers all over the world.  This is UW’s first read and publish agreement with a major publisher and runs for three years, from 2021 to 2023.

Why is it important?

Over the past decade, the growing adoption of Open Access (OA) publishing has changed the nature of the scholarly publishing ecosystem – for authors, readers, publishers, and libraries. A 2019 study estimated that 31% of all journal articles are available as OA and 52% of all article views are to OA articles, and that the trend toward more open scholarship will continue. There has been increased interest among research libraries to help accelerate the transition by moving away from traditional journal subscriptions to read and publish arrangements that help cover all or part of the costs to institutional authors for Open Access article publishing.

How does it work?

UW authors interested in publishing openly in Cambridge University Press (CUP) journals can find a useful overview of the agreement and how it works in the Read and Publish agreement with the Orbis Cascade Alliance. Briefly:

  • The corresponding author must be affiliated with the University of Washington and authors must indicate their UW institutional affiliation at the time of submission. 
  • The agreement provides a complete waiver on all Article Processing Charges (APCs) for UW corresponding authors publishing in CUP journals with an Open Access publishing option. 
  • Financial support is only available for the gold or hybrid OA journals linked from the Read and Publish agreement with the Orbis Cascade Alliance page. 
  • Articles must be accepted for publication between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2023. There’s no limit on the number of times an eligible UW author may request funding during the contract period.
  • Once an article has been accepted and submitted, authors select a Creative Commons License for their work. The CC license is widely used and accepted in OA publishing and allows authors to determine how readers can re-use and share their work.
  • As UW corresponding authors complete their Author Publishing Agreement, they’ll have the option to seek funding to pay for their article processing charges.  UW will approve or deny the request and authors will receive an email confirming this decision.  

We are excited about the new agreement and this opportunity to help support and promote UW open scholarship. If you have questions about the CUP agreement or Open Access publishing, please contact the Libraries’ Scholarly Communication and Publishing Department.

Gordon Aamot
Director, Scholarly Communication and Publishing