Open Access (OA) & Scholarly Publishing

Transformative Agreements (TAs), which are also known as "Read and Publish Agreements," are a set of terms negotiated in a license between a publisher and a library, library system/consortia, or national organization, which is fundamentally designed to shift costs away from subscription-based reading and toward open access publishing. Traditionally, university libraries subscribe to journals with a subscription fee to the journal publisher so that university researchers and students can access content that would otherwise be behind a paywall. Open Access (OA) publishing allows anyone to access and re-use the journal content subject to license agreements at no cost. To make an article OA, authors usually need to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) to the publisher. 

The University of Texas System has signed up for several open access with publishers, giving researchers a range of benefits and discounts on Article Processing Charges (APCs). As part of the UT System, the SPH Library supports transformative agreements with publishers by encouraging SPH researchers to take advantage of the APC discounts.

Important! Please Contact Us Before Submitting Materials to a Publisher!

While we strive to keep these LibGuides up-to-date, publisher agreements are constantly evolving. To ensure you have the most accurate information, please contact your library before submitting any materials to a publisher.