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Emory Libraries announce open access publishing agreement with Cambridge University Press
Emory's Robert W. Woodruff Library

Emory Libraries and Cambridge University Press have made an agreement allowing Emory University authors and researchers to publish their work "open access” in all Cambridge University Press journals without paying a publishing cost.

Emory University researchers can publish their work “open access” in all Cambridge University Press journals without paying a publishing cost, thanks to an agreement between Emory Libraries and Cambridge University Press.

Open-access journals don’t charge libraries or readers to access their articles. Instead, they pass along the cost to authors through an article-publishing fee that can range from $500 to more than $10,000. The agreement with Cambridge University Press exempts Emory researchers from paying that fee.

When Emory researchers publish their work openly, it maximizes the accessibility, discoverability and impact of Emory research. The Libraries’ Cambridge package includes more than 380 peer-reviewed journals across the humanities, social sciences and STEM fields. Emory joins more than 1,000 prestigious research institutions around the globe in formalizing this agreement with Cambridge, whose goal is to make all their journals fully open access by around 2025.

The agreement applies to all articles authored by Emory University researchers that are accepted for publication between Jan. 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2024.

“The Emory Libraries’ agreement with Cambridge University Press is a tremendous benefit to Emory University researchers,” says Emory Libraries interim dean and university librarian Lisa Macklin. “It allows Emory researchers to openly publish their articles in hundreds of prestigious journals across all disciplines at no cost to them, meaning these articles may be more widely read and cited.

“Open access to the results of research also benefits those who could not otherwise afford to access it or do not have institutional access, such as the general public, many health care practitioners and people in developing nations,” adds Macklin, who is also associate dean of research, engagement and scholarly communications. “This increases equal access to knowledge across the globe.”

The Open Access Publishing Fund through Emory Libraries provides funds to make it easier for Emory authors to publish in open-access journals and books when no alternative funding is available, says Jody Bailey, head of the Scholarly Communications Office at Emory.

“However, it’s a limited fund of last resort, and authors need to meet stringent criteria to qualify for funding,” Bailey says. “In contrast, Emory Libraries’ agreement with Cambridge University Press provides seamless access to open-access publishing for our researchers with no caps on the number of articles per author or per year. And the press uses the same rigorous peer-review process that is used in traditional subscription-based publishing.”

Learn more on the Emory Libraries blog.

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