Transformational agreements: more exciting news for UP authors

Transformational agreements are contracts negotiated between institutions (libraries, national and regional consortia) and publishers, that transform the business model underlying scholarly journal publishing. These agreements have moved from a basis of toll-access (subscription) to a basis where publishers can be remunerated a fair price for their open-access publishing services (ESAC Initiative).

To initiate mechanisms for the transformation of the traditional subscription-based publishing model into a more sustainable and cost-effective open-access (OA) model for the South African higher education system, the South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC) concluded multi-year Transformational (Read & Publish) agreements with five publishers, started in 2021 and 2022 respectively. The University of Pretoria (UP) participated in the following three: The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) (2021- 2023), Emerald (2022 – 2024), and Wiley (2022 – 2025). These agreements provided UP researchers and students unrestricted access to scholarly content and allowed UP authors to freely share and disseminate their research globally through 1585 accredited journals. 

We are delighted to announce that several new transformational agreements were signed for the period 2023 – 2025, with other publishers, including the American Chemical Society, ScienceDirect, and SpringerNature. Many gold OA journals and Hindawi journals were also added to the Wiley agreement at the beginning of 2023. These new agreements and additions, provide UP authors with an opportunity to choose from 6545 journals to publish in, without paying any article processing charges (APCs).

We have updated all of our information on transformational agreements on the DLS webpage and have also included the newly added titles on the alphabetical list of journals, where UP authors can publish open access without paying any APCs. 

Researchers can publish their manuscripts in these journals by following the usual submission and peer-review process. To choose a journal that is included in the transformational agreements, you can access the alphabetical list on the DLS webpage. 

It is further important to confirm that it is accredited, from one of the DHET-acknowledged lists. 

For more information on UP’s transformational agreements, please use the self-help guidelines on the Open Scholarship webpage, or contact your helpful information specialist, who is there to provide support and guidance to authors throughout the process.