New agreement empowers more UC authors to share their scholarship openly

New agreement empowers more UC authors to share their scholarship openly

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Making it easier and more affordable for University of California (UC) researchers to publish open access (OA) articles, the UC and academic publisher Taylor & Francis reached a four-year read and publish agreement. The new partnership between UC and one of the 10 largest publishers of UC research, advances a mutual goal to empower more authors to share their scholarship openly with readers around the globe.

Under the agreement, the UC libraries will automatically cover the OA fees in full for any UC corresponding author who chooses to publish OA in Taylor & Francis and Routledge journals. Authors of articles accepted for publication in a hybrid or full OA title will have the opportunity to choose OA at no cost to them.

Taylor & Francis has one of the world's largest Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) portfolios, with more journals in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index than any other publisher. The new agreement advances a broader goal within UC to expand support for authors publishing HSS research, areas that generally have had limited funding for OA publishing.

To maximize the number of UC researchers who can benefit from the newly signed agreement, authors of qualifying articles published since Jan. 1, 2024, will be given the opportunity to retrospectively convert their article to open access, with the OA fees fully covered. Authors who have already published OA since Jan. 1 will be offered refunds for OA fees already paid.

In addition to extensive OA publishing support, the agreement also ensures the UC community has continued reading access to nearly 1,300 Taylor & Francis journals.

"This new agreement offers an exciting opportunity for UC researchers to share their work more openly and widely than ever before," said Mark Hanna, an associate professor of history at UC San Diego and chair of the UC faculty Academic Senate's systemwide committee on library and scholarly communication. "It underscores UC's commitment to advancing academic research, removing barriers to access and amplifying the impact of the important work being done across disciplines."

Taylor & Francis is a leading publisher of open access journals, books, and research platforms. UC joins over 950 global institutions partnering with Taylor & Francis through open access agreements, including 14 others in the Americas.

For more details about the agreement, visit the UC Office of Scholarly Communication.

About UC Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.