We’re delighted to announce that as of February 22, UC authors will be able to begin making research they publish in the Biochemical Society / Portland Press journals freely available for anyone to read by taking advantage of the university’s new transformative open access agreement with the publisher. The agreement also expands reading access to the full portfolio of Biochemical Society / Portland Press journals to researchers at all ten UC campuses.

This new cost-neutral transformative agreement – which runs from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2024 – covers open access publishing in the Biochemical Society / Portland Press’s five hybrid (subscription-based) journals and two open access journals. The agreement achieves both of UC’s key goals for transformative open access journal agreements: controlling costs and providing for open access publishing in the full portfolio of Biochemical Society / Portland Press journals.   

“Having published in the Biochemical Society’s journals for many years, I know they are an important resource for the molecular-bioscience community,” said Frank McCormick, PhD, FRS, Professor of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. “This transformative agreement will ensure that more content from UC researchers across all ten campuses is openly available, benefiting both UC and the wider community.”

The agreement includes open access publishing of an unlimited number of articles by corresponding authors at all 10 UC campuses. Under the agreement, the UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the open access fee, or article processing charge (APC), for all UC authors who choose to publish in a Biochemical Society / Portland Press journal. Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so. Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries, ensuring that lack of research funds does not present a barrier for UC authors who wish to publish open access in Biochemical Society / Portland Press journals. 

By combining funding from the libraries with authors’ grant funds, the agreement provides a model for how research-intensive institutions can create a sustainable and inclusive path to full open access. 

“We are delighted to be partnering with the Biochemical Society to advance a shared strategic goal of fostering a sustainable transition to open access,” said Ellen Finnie, Director of Shared Collections at the California Digital Library. “This agreement expands access to the Biochemical Society’s journals at UC, makes it easier and more affordable for UC researchers to publish open access with the Society, and demonstrates UC’s commitment to working collaboratively with scholarly societies and publishers of every scale to advance open access to research.”

“We are extremely pleased to launch this agreement furthering open access and sustainability goals for both University of California and the Biochemical Society, said Professor Richard Reece, Chair of Portland Press Board, Trustee of the Biochemical Society and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Kent. “Most importantly, though, we are excited to offer researchers based at UC campuses increased, and more seamless, open access publishing through this landmark agreement for Portland Press.”

For more detail about the agreement please see our overview of the Biochemical Society / Portland Press open access agreement.

Also see: The Biochemical Society / Portland Press’s press release

If you have questions, please contact your UC campus library:

About UC’s Transformative Open Access Agreements:

Transformative open access agreements support UC’s mission as a public university and advance the global shift toward sustainable open access publishing by making more UC-authored research articles open to the world, while maintaining journal affordability. UC seeks to partner with publishers of all types, sizes and disciplines to jointly advance a worldwide transition to open access across the entire landscape of scholarly journal publishing. For more on these aims and principles, see UC’s Call to Action for Negotiating Journal Agreements at UC, the UC faculty Academic Senate’s Declaration of Rights and Principles to Transform Scholarly Communication, and UC’s priorities for publisher negotiations.

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