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Read and Publish Agreements (R&P) are negotiated with journal publishers by the Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL), the peak body for university libraries in Australia. These agreements repurpose existing funds that libraries pay in subscription fees for staff and students to “read” content to also allow JCU authors to “publish” open access in included journals at no additional cost.
2025 is the fourth year that JCU Library has signed Read and Publish Agreements, and we now have 19 agreements in place. We have over 10,000 journals eligible for the article processing charge (APC) to be waived to make your article open access.
Using the A-Z Title List
We have compiled an A-Z Title list that includes all the journal titles in JCU’s Read and Publish Agreements. You can use the list to filter and search for journal titles and publishers. It is important to check the terms and conditions for particular publishers using the list on our guide, as the process can vary.
Regardless of the publisher, to be eligible for access to the fee waiver, you need to meet three criteria:
- You must be the corresponding author on the paper
- You must use your JCU email address when submitting
- You must list JCU as your affiliation on the article
CiteScore is a journal-level metric provided by Scopus which reflects the average number of citations per article received by a journal in the previous 4 calendar years. Scopus metrics are released for indexed journals around June/July each year. To assist researchers with making informed decisions about where to publish, we have added CiteScore information for journals in our Read and Publish Agreements to a downloadable Excel spreadsheet. Note that the spreadsheet only lists the Scopus Subject Area associated with the highest CiteScore percentile achieved by the journal. CiteScore only measures past citation performance and should not be the only factor you consider when selecting a journal to publish in.
Publisher caps – Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley
As we come to the end of the year, annual Read and Publish caps for popular publishers like Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley are reaching their limit. Some publishers place caps on the number of articles eligible to be covered under the agreements, it is important to note that these caps are Australia-wide. It is projected that for 2025 these caps will be reached in October/November. Our capped agreements for Elsevier and American Institute of Physics Publishing (AIP) are not due to run out this year.
What does it mean if a cap is exhausted?
If your article is accepted by a publisher and you have signed your author agreement after a cap has been exhausted, you may still have some options to publish open access depending on the type of journal you submitted to.
Hybrid (subscription journals) – if you submitted to a hybrid journal and do not have alternative funds to cover the cost of the APC, you can still “publish behind the paywall”, meaning your article will not be open access immediately but will be available to institutions and individuals who pay for a subscription. If you still want to pursue open access for your article behind the paywall, you can investigate depositing an Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) into ResearchOnline@JCU to make your article “green” open access in our repository after an embargo period.
Full open access journal – If you submitted to a fully open access journal after the cap has been reached you will be required to either pay the APC or withdraw the article, though some publishers may offer a discount. JCU Library is unable to cover these fees for you.
Note that regardless of cap limits, some publishers may charge additional fees for colour or print publication, and these fees will need to be covered by the author. JCU Library does not have the funds to cover any additional charges outside of an APC. Always check the publisher specific information on our guide before submitting an article for publication.
CAUL is currently in negotiations with publishers on behalf of JCU and other universities from across the country. While it is likely that we will continue to maintain a number of Read and Publish Agreements, we cannot predict what publishers or journals will be on the list. Please continue to use the information on the guide provided and conduct your own due diligence when making any publishing decisions.
If you have any questions – please do not hesitate to contact the Scholarly Communications team.
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