Capped Read and Publish agreements update
Read and Publish agreements are designed to support the transition to an open scholarly publishing system. They take the Library’s existing expenditure on subscriptions and repurpose it to cover both reading and publishing in that publisher’s journals. When you publish in a journal that’s included in one of the agreements, your article will be made open access, and you won’t have to pay an article processing charge (APC). Some publishers only offer agreements that are subject to a limitation (or “cap”) on the number of individual articles that can be made open access per year. Often, the cap is reached before the end of the year.
The annual cap for open access publishing with several Read & Publish agreements has been reached for 2025. The cap applies to all institutions participating in the agreement.
- Wiley (hybrid journals) – cap was reached on 19 September.
- Springer Nature – cap was reached on 9 October.
- Taylor & Francis – cap was reached on 24 October.
- Wiley (fully open access journals) – cap was reached on 28 October.
How does this affect Deakin researchers?
Open access article processing charges (APCs) are not covered for journals in these agreements after the caps are reached. Authors have different options if the journal is hybrid or fully open access.
Hybrid journals (include Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley)
Hybrid journals are subscription journals that give authors the option to pay an APC to make their individual article open access. Until the cap is reached, this APC is covered by our Read & Publish agreement.
After the cap is reached, articles accepted in hybrid journals can be published with subscription access for free, or the authors can elect to pay the open access article processing charge (APC) themselves.
Instead of paying the APC, we recommend uploading the accepted manuscript version to Elements for a free repository (Green) open access in DRO after any applicable publisher embargo.
Fully open access (gold) journals (includes Wiley only)
Gold open access journals, also known as fully open access journals, charge APCs and make all their articles free for anyone to read. Until the cap is reached, this APC is covered by our Read & Publish agreement.
After the cap is reached, authors will need to pay the APC for publication in fully open access journals, as there is no option to publish behind a subscription paywall. Information about APCs is available on the journal’s website.
Please see further guidance available on CAUL’s guide to the Wiley agreement.
Responding to the challenge of capped open access agreements
The Library understands the frustration researchers may feel about publisher caps on our Read & Publish agreements. We share this frustration, and it reflects a much larger issue in today’s scholarly publishing landscape, one that reinforces limitations instead of supporting open, inclusive access to research.
To address these issues, the Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL) has partnered with Universities Australia (UA) and Universities New Zealand (UNZ) to establish a new sector-wide approach to open access negotiations with the world’s four largest academic publishers – Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis and Springer Nature.
These negotiations aim to secure more sustainable, transparent and inclusive publishing agreements for 2026 and beyond. Key priorities include addressing legacy pricing inequities, curbing escalating costs, and providing certainty for researchers through uncapped OA publishing entitlements.
The Library is committed to advancing open access and is actively involved in local and sector-level initiatives to drive change in these systems. A journal’s inclusion in a Read & Publish agreement should not be the sole factor when deciding where to publish, but part of a larger set of considerations. See publishing and open access, or contact your librarian with any questions about open access publishing.