Cambridge is aiming for the vast majority of research papers to be published fully open access by 2025 and is leading the way in its approach through innovative models, in consultation with authors and researchers, to reach this ambition.

Researchers at over 2,000 institutions globally are able to publish their research open access thanks to publishing agreements signed in collaboration with our library customers.  

In the United States alone, Cambridge signed open access publishing agreements covering more than 300 institutions within the last three years, including with the University of California, the world’s leading public research university system.   

These agreements are just part of the transition to fully open access, as Mandy Hill told us. 

The shift to open access publishing comes with challenges, including financial barriers. Open access shifts costs from readers to authors, potentially creating new inequalities and financial barriers in subject areas, as well as in countries, where research funding is scarce.  

As Mandy Hill put it: “Well-funded scholars in economically developed nations and their institutions can typically cover publishing costs, whether directly through article processing charges or via institutional open-access publishing agreements. This is not true of their peers in many other parts of the world, who therefore risk being prevented from publishing in international open-access journals.” 

This really matters because, as Mandy Hill wrote in Times Higher Education, “We risk missing out on vital contributions to everything from mental health to clean energy from academics in low- and middle-income countries. For example, researchers in such countries played critical roles in understanding development economics and democratisation, the emergence of stem cell technology and sequencing the Omicron variant of Covid-19.”

The good news is that Cambridge and its partners are working on a solution.

Recognising these barriers, the team worked closely with a group of librarians and funders to launch the Cambridge Open Equity Initiative in April 2023 – a new initiative to fully fund open access publishing where there is a cost barrier for authors. This ensures authors from 107 low- and middle-income countries do not have to pay article processing charges to publish in Cambridge journals. The approach is delivered through collective funding, bringing together financial support from Cambridge and our institutional partners. 

Curtis Brundy, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Communications and Collections at Iowa State University, is an early supporter: “We have to maintain our focus on equity as we transition to open access. The Cambridge Open Equity Initiative helps the community to overcome both financial and administrative barriers, ensuring that scholars have the opportunity to publish regardless of the availability of funding,” he said. 

Professor Dixon Chibanda of London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), joint Editor-in-Chief of Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health, and founder of Friendship Bench, Zimbabwe, sees this as a way to expand access to and the prominence of research discoveries. Professor Chibanda said: “This will enable the rich practical lessons from the Global South to be shared with the global scientific community. I hope other major publishers will follow.” 

Words by Katie Phoenix