Mid-year 2024 look at new open access publishing opportunities

Written by: Matthew Person

Last Fall we reported on OA publishing opportunities for MBLWHOI Library served Woods Hole scientists (at MBL, WHOI, SEA, USGS, and WCRC.)

Here’s a quick mid-year update:

The American Society for Microbiology journal titles (with one exception, Molecular and Cellular Biology) will in 2025 become part of the S2O, (“Subscribe to Open” program.) Corresponding authors will be able to have their articles published open access in ASM journals without any author APC charges (article processing charges). In the Subscribe to Open model, when the libraries which subscribe to a title all continue to hold annual subscriptions to that title, the annual “subscription” payments fund open access publishing for corresponding authors at MBL, WHOI, SEA, USGS, and WCRC. Did you know all the titles published by Annual Reviews follow the S2O open access publishing model? In 2026, the above S2O publishers will be joined by many titles from the BioOne database of society journals.

Subscribe to open graphic by Annual Reviews, license: CC-By_SA 1.0

The Library recently entered into an open access membership in the journals of the Royal Society of London. This membership gives our corresponding authors a 25% discount on the open access article processing charges for published articles in Royal Society journals. In evaluating open access opportunities for our scientists, we look towards cost-neutral OA programs with clear benefits to our community.

The MBLWHOI Library also participates in a bi-monthly global discussion group facilitated by the Max Planck Digital Library on the practice of negotiating open access agreements. At each meeting the most important issues relating to fairness in journals management are discussed. Such forums assist the MBLWHOI Library in its role to seek out those open access agreements which serve our community in an equitable, fair, and sustainable manner. The library has turned down open access agreement offers with publishers which do not fairly serve the Woods Hole scientific community. Like journal subscription charges, Article Processing Charges are higher every year. According to library consultants DeltaThink, Article Processing Charges have risen over the last year 9.5% in fully OA journal titles and 4.2% for titles which are mixed paid subscription and OA.

This coming Fall, look for our International Open Access Week program in October, when we plan to open the floor to discussion about open access challenges and successes Woods Hole researchers/authors experience. If you have any questions or comments on these matters, please stop by our MBL Lillie, or WHOI MacLean building offices, or send us a note: library@mbl.edu