Read & Publish agreements allow authors to publish Open Access in eligible journals without paying article processing charges (APCs). As a condition of these agreements, some publishers have put in a place a national cap on the number of articles that can receive an APC waiver.
As we near the end of the year, please be aware that the following publishers have reached or are close to reaching their APC waiver caps:
- Springer Nature (reached)
- Taylor & Francis (est. Oct 2025)
- Hybrid Open Access (reached)
- Fully Open Access (est. Nov 2025)
Once these caps are reached, Open Access publishing under these agreements will no longer be possible for the remainder of the year.
Alternative Open Access options for authors
Authors affected by these caps may consider alternative routes to achieving Open Access:
- Publishing behind the paywall and archiving the author accepted manuscript into OPUS (Green Open Access)
- Seeking alternative funding to cover the APC
For updates on other capped agreements, please refer to the relevant publisher pages: AIP, Elsevier, Oxford University Press.
The full list of Read and Publish agreements available to UTS can be viewed on the Open Access Publishing page.
Agreements for 2026
The Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) are currently renegotiating national agreements with publishers for 2026 and beyond. As negotiations are ongoing, we cannot confirm which agreements or journals will be available next year.
We advise against making publishing decisions based on the assumption that there will be a particular agreement in place next year.
Contact the Library for advice on publishing options.