To further encourage open access publishing from UAB authors, a new agreement between UAB Libraries and Wiley enables lead or corresponding authors affiliated with the university to publish open access in any fully open access or open access hybrid Wiley journals and fully open access Hindawi journals at no cost to the author; the agreement applies to articles submitted after Jan. 1 and covers nearly 2,000 journals.
UAB also has a similar agreement with Cambridge University Press, which waves article processing charges for UAB-affiliated authors when publishing in Cambridge open access and hybrid journals.
Open access to information, or the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and reuse those results as needed, plays a crucial role in making advances in research and scholarship equitability, says Jeff Graveline, J.D., professor and associate dean for Research and Scholarly Communication for UAB Libraries.
UAB employees and students can access millions of online resources with just their BlazerID and password — but those same resources would come at a high cost to unaffiliated individual scholars, clinicians, patients, consumers, policymakers and others who could benefit from accessing resources. When scholarship is published as open access, it removes that financial barrier and better enables the sharing of important information.
Continuing to prioritize a commitment to open access publishing is crucial for UAB’s mission to drive research and innovation across the enterprise, as outlined in UAB’s strategic plan, Forging the Future, Graveline explains.
“These two agreements will create boundless opportunities for UAB authors to share their work on a global scale,” Graveline said. “Because these publications are available on the open web for no charge anytime, anywhere in the world, for anyone to use, UAB’s scholarly findings can have even more impact on ongoing research worldwide.”
