Read & Publish (or transformative) agreements bundle together the costs for accessing the content of a publisher and the costs for the open access publication of a certain number of articles by researchers from the participating institution. Are they the solution to the uncontrollable increase in the costs of scientific literature?
What they are
They are agreements entered into between the institution and the publisher, according to which the costs paid by the institution include both access to the publisher’s resources for affiliated individuals (read quota) and a certain number of open access publications by authors affiliated with the institution (publish quota).
ITALY, THROUGH THE CONSORTIUM COORDINATION FOR ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC RESOURCES (CARE), WHICH IS AFFILIATED WITH CRUI, HAS CONCLUDED SEVERAL TRANSFORMATIVE AGREEMENTS. UNIMORE ADHERES ONLY TO SOME OF THESE.
The variability in the conditions stipulated by transformative agreements is extensive: it ranges from the traditional subscription model with added discounts on APCs (as in the case of the CRUI-Elsevier contract) to those who include a certain number of pre-paid ‘vouchers’ for open access in the overall price (often calculated based on an estimate of the number of articles produced annually by the institution’s researchers), to those who guarantee open access for all publications by affiliates of the institution.
The purpose
The purpose is twofold: to contain the costs of accessing and publishing scientific literature and to promote the transition from traditional closed-access scientific publishing to open access. The goal is to shift from a pay-to-read model to a pay-to-publish model, with (at least) equivalent costs.
According to the ESAC initiative, transformative agreements should be:
» Temporary, transitional and transparent,
» Aimed at containing costs and promoting fairness in the scientific publishing system.
In addition, they should PROVIDE THAT AUTHORS RETAIN COPYRIGHT OVER THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS.
Criticalities
Despite the stated objectives, the implementation of the read and publish model presents several critical issues, including a certain lack of transparency on the part of publishers, undefined transition times to full open access, and a general increase in costs for institutions.
For these reasons as well, in 2022, the Budapest Open Access Initiative recommended abandoning the read and publish model in favor of editorial models that benefit all regions of the world under the control of academic and non-profit organizations. This is to prevent open access literature from being concentrated in dominant commercial journals.
The Coalition S has defined specific criteria for journals to demonstrate their transformation process towards full open access.