Library

Open Access publishing

Current publisher agreements at the RCH Library

Transformative agreements describe negotiations between libraries and publishers to provide lower cost access to Open Access (OA) publishing.

RCH Library negotiations with publishers are ongoing to make APCs (Article Processing Charges) more accessible. As agreements are reached they will be listed here.

  • Oxford Academic provides RCH employees with some APCs waived. Use your RCH email address in the submission process (approval is required). See the author guide and eligible journals.
  • SpringerNature provides RCH and MCRI employees with some APCs waived. Use your RCH or MCRI email address in the submission process (approval is required). See the author guide and eligible journals.
  • Wiley provides RCH employees with some APCs waived. Use your RCH email address in the submission process (approval is required). More information to follow.
  • Wolters Kluwer provides RCH and MCRI employees with a share of funds that have been allocated to a group of Victorian hospitals (through their libraries) to share the cost of APCs for 2026. See more information about the process.

Contact the Library for help or more information about these processes.

Frequently asked questions about Open Access publishing

How can I tell if my journal is covered by an RCH Library agreement?
Check our website for the lists of publishers and journals.
Is there a limit to the number of journal articles covered by publishers?
Yes, all agreements for RCH Library are capped.
What agreements are available for RCH staff and researchers?
We currently have agreements with Oxford, SpringerNature, Wiley (pending) and Wolters Kluwer.
Why hasn't the Library signed up to every OA agreement that Victorian Health Libraries Consortium (VHLC) has?
We are unable to sign up to all of the available agreements that VHLC offers due to costs. Any recommendations for publishers or journals to be included in future OA services will be given due consideration. All feedback helps our future planning.
How do I take advantage of the agreements?
Once you have decided on a journal, check that is covered by a Library agreement and then check if you qualify (some agreements don't cover MCRI). You must provide some additional information via this eligibility form.
What is the eligibility process?
Eligibility rests with the corresponding author's first or primary affiliation. Corresponding authors require a current RCH email address to apply for a waiver under the Oxford, SpringerNature, Wiley or Wolters Kluwer agreements, or a current MCRI email address to apply for a waiver under the SpringerNature and Wolters Kluwer agreements.
What affiliation do I use?
It's best to list all of your affiliations, however eligibility rests with the corresponding author's first or primary affiliation. Affiliating first with a university or another institution means you will not meet our eligibility requirements. You may wish to consider your employment conditions, funding requirements or organisational requirements before deciding on which affiliation to select as your primary affiliation.
Do I have to be a corresponding author?
It's the corresponding author who will be able to take advantage of the agreements if they are eligible and will need the appropriate current organisational email address.
Is there a limit per person?
You will likely be granted one waiver for Open Access (OA) publishing if you are eligible and if they are available. We can't guarantee more than one as the demand is high and the agreement caps do reach their quotas during the year.
What if my journal isn't covered?
You must either take advantage of another agreement, find alternative funding. or change journals/publishers. We welcome feedback on the current agreements, so contact us if you have questions or recommendations and they will be given due consideration. All feedback helps our future planning.
Why should I publish Open Access?
OA research results are disseminated more widely and rapidly being open and this, permits new ideas to be incorporated into new research sooner. The removal of pay-to-view barriers allows access to new research by those who cannot afford to pay. This means your research is more visible and widely used, including in developing countries. See more information.
What is a transformative agreement?
Transformative agreements describe those reached by negotiations between libraries and publishers to provide lower cost access to OA publishing.
How do I acknowledge the use of an OA Publishing agreement?
You are not obliged to acknowledge if you have used an RCH Library OA agreement. If you wish to, use this text: Open access costs have been covered under an open access publishing agreement between the Victorian Health Libraries Consortium and [publisher].

Should you publish in Open Access journals?

Many Australian funders, such as the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Australian Research Council (ARC), have mandates that require government funded research to be published in OA journals or be made open access via depositing the publication in an institutional repository.

See MCRI’s Clinical Research Development Office (CRDO) and Resources for researchers – the Launching Pad for more information. Find out how to meet funder requirements via MCRI Data Connect (MCRI staff only).

Campus staff can connect with the Melbourne Children’s Clinical Research Hub to begin navigating the publishing process.

See also Benefits and deficits of OA publishing below.

What are the different models of Open Access publishing?

These are the most commonly used models used by publishers and researchers:

Gold Hybrid Green Diamond/Platinum
Authors most commonly pay a fee to publish their works in an OA journal or eBook. The content is free to read and access. Authors pay a fee to publish their work in an otherwise subscription journal. The article(s) are then free to read and access. Authors publish their works in an institutional repository. This is free but may have some restrictions. The content is usually free to read and access.
 Authors can publish for free in these journals or eBook platforms. The content is free to read and access.
Publisher’s journals and platforms utilise this model. Publisher’s journals and platforms utilise this model.* If you have already published the work elsewhere, you may not be able to publish OA in an institutional repository.** These may be either institutional- or community-supported journals.
Article Processing Fees (APCs) are usually payable by the author. Article Processing Fees (APCs) are payable by the author. They are often higher than Gold APCs. No cost to author. No cost to author.

* This model does not meet the NHMRC OA Policy unless the journal is included as part of a formal transformative agreement.

** See the repositories at MCRI (Figshare) or UoM (Minerva) to find out more.

Benefits and deficits of OA publishing

Benefits

  • Scholarly research results are disseminated more widely and rapidly, permitting new ideas to be incorporated into new research sooner.
  • Removal of pay-to-view barriers allows access to new research by those who cannot afford to pay. This means your research is more visible and widely used, including in developing countries.
  • Citing of your work will increase.

Deficits

  • APCs may be payable, and these fees are not always accounted for in the research funding.
  • Some OA journals take time to develop an impact factor and ranking in their field.
  • The quality and number of full OA journals available in different disciplines varies.
  • Some predatory journals claim to be OA and attempt to scam researchers by asking them to pay APCs.

What is Open Access?

Open Access includes freely accessible materials such as scholarly works, journal articles, online books, datasets, audio, patents and grey literature.

OA is one part of the Open Science movement, an umbrella term used to refer to removing the barriers for sharing any kind of output, resources, methods or tools, at any stage of the research process.

What is Open Science?

OA publications, open research data, open-source software, open collaboration, open peer review, open notebooks, open educational resources or even citizen science all fall within the boundaries of Open Science.

As described by the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science:

...  open science is defined as an inclusive construct that combines various movements and practices aiming to make multilingual scientific knowledge openly available, accessible and reusable for everyone, to increase scientific collaborations and sharing of information for the benefits of science and society, and to open the processes of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation and communication to societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community.

It comprises all scientific disciplines and aspects of scholarly  practices, including basic and applied sciences, natural and social sciences and the humanities, and it builds on the following key pillars: open scientific knowledge, open science infrastructures, science communication, open engagement of societal actors and open dialogue with other knowledge systems.

Further information

Sources

Sources for information on this page are:

Got a question?

Related

Can't find it?