Skip to Main Content

Open Access Publishing: UL Library OA Publishing Agreements

The Glucksman Library's guide to assist researchers to publish their work Open Access

Introduction

The Glucksman Library supports open access through a variety of channels including the Research Repository. In order to accelerate the transition towards full open access, the Library (along with the Irish Research eLibrary (IReL)) is also actively involved in negotiating open access agreements with a growing number of scholarly publishers.

Read and publish deals (also known as "transformative deals") have evolved as a result of changes in the open access landscape. In particular, these changes have been brought about by Plan S. Read and publish deals are blanket agreements with academic publishers that cover both the subscription to the journal (the "read" aspect), and the open access publishing cost (the "publish" aspect). These deals therefore allow authors from the University of Limerick to publish gold open access at no extra cost, regardless of whether their work is funded.

What Journals are covered

This  google doc is updated regularly with all the journal titles covered by this agreement. Columns G & H will be updated if a fund is due to run out before the year end. Approximately 11,000 journals are covered by this agreement from the publishers listed below.

Step by step instructions on how to publish using these agreements.

  1. Check the google doc to ensure your journal is covered by an agreement. Pay attention to columns G & H to ensure we still have available budget with the publisher
  2. Using your UL email address and affiliation submit as normal to your Journal
  3. Once your article has been accepted you will be contacted by the publisher alerting you to the Open Access agreement and asking you to choose Open Access*
  4. The library will then be sent a notification that you have applied for funding.
  5. As long as you are a current Student or Staff member of UL and we have available budget we will approve the request. 

* If at this point the publisher looks to send you an invoice. Please contact the library at libinfo@ul.ie and provide a screenshot of the    communication from the publisher. 

Which publishers are covered?

UPDATE OCTOBER2024 -

The following publisher funds are closed for 2024.

Articles accepted for publication in 2024 cannot have the Open Access charges referred to UL. They can still be published as subscription articles.

  • Springer
  • Taylor & Francis
  • Wiley Gold fund is closed for submissions in 2024. Articles submitted in 2024 will not have the option to be referred to UL even if accepted in 2025. 
  • Elsevier

The list below details the publishing agreements and arrangements currently available through UL Library

Who can avail of these agreements?

Open access publishing agreements can be availed of by all corresponding authors affiliated with UL. The corresponding author is the person responsible for manuscript submission and all correspondence/communication during the publication process.

Please ensure you include your UL address and UL email address in the corresponding author details at the time of submission.

Do I still need to self-archive my research in an open access repository?

Some funding bodies/programmes (e.g. Horizon 2020) may still require you to archive your publication in a repository even if it is already published open access, so check your grant agreement to ensure you comply with any such requirements.

Some other benefits to depositing your work in ULIR include

  • Provides an online searchable database of your Research Outputs
  • Allows grey literature & multimedia formats to be published
  • Provides usage statistics and alternative metrics
  • Provides a permanent weblink for each publication

IReL

IReL is a nationally funded e-resource licensing consortium providing access to leading Science, Technology and Medicine (STM) and Humanities and Social Sciences (STM) resources on behalf of participating Irish publicly funded higher education institutions. 

IReL facilitates open access agreements with publishers to allow corresponding authors from eligible institutions to publish their articles open access immediately on publication, at no additional cost outside the agreement.

IReL's requirements when negotiating with publishers include that:

  • agreements should cover both the read costs (reader access to subscription content) and publication costs (for publishing OA articles from IReL members), and that
  • increased spending on publication should result in proportionately lower spending on subscription fees.

Creative Commons licenses

Creative Commons (CC) licences do not replace copyright. By adopting CC licences authors allow others to use their published work more flexibly. We recommend that you first check if your funding body requires or prefers a specific licence.

The most common CC licences are:

CC BY logo
CC BY: This licence lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licences offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

CC BY-SA: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.

CC BY-NC logo
CC BY-NC: This licence lets others remix, adapt, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

CC BY-NC-SA: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms. 

CC BY-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. 

CC BY NC-ND logo
CC BY-NC-ND: This licence is the most restrictive of the six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

Source: https://creativecommons.org/licenses