Five year agreement will deliver access to UC researchers and support sustainable open access for independent nonprofit publishers
This post is a joint press release issued by BioOne and the University of California.
Washington, D.C. and LOCATION, June 25, 2025 — The University of California (UC) and BioOne today announced the signing of a five-year agreement to bring the flagship BioOne Complete aggregation to 9 UC campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory through 2029. Notably, this agreement includes the full term of BioOne’s Subscribe to Open (S2O) pilot from 2026 through 2028. This extended partnership advances the mutual goals of sustainable open access and equitable scholarly communications.
BioOne’s Subscribe to Open pilot will enable conditional open access for 71 titles from 54 global societies, museums, and research organizations, and represents the largest number of independent publishers under a single S2O offer to date. Under this agreement, supporting subscribers in the UC system are guaranteed reading access to the full BioOne Complete collection of more than 230,000 articles in the biological sciences while providing significant open access support. Via a successful pilot, UC-affiliated authors publishing in participating titles will also benefit from increased exposure of their work to the worldwide biosciences community.
“We are grateful to the University of California for their extraordinary commitment in support of BioOne’s community of nonprofit publishers,” said Christine Orr, BioOne’s Senior Director of Business and Community Development. “Twenty five years ago, multiple members of the UC system boldly signed on as charter supporters of BioOne and have remained steadfast library partners. With this agreement that not only includes BioOne’s S2O pilot years but surpasses them, UC affirms their long-term dedication to sustainable scholarly communications and to amplifying the critical work published by the scientific communities we represent.”
“We are pleased to partner with BioOne on this Subscribe to Open agreement,” said Miranda Bennett, Director of Shared Collections, California Digital Library in the UC Office of the President. “This agreement advances UC’s and BioOne’s mutual goals to shift the scholarly communication system toward greater openness and equity through sustainable and strategic partnerships.”
Throughout the S2O pilot, BioOne Complete will be a mixed model collection of 219 subscribed, S2O, and OA titles. With sufficient support from subscribing libraries, current-year content of the 71 S2O titles will be made open access. If the sustainability threshold is not met, that content will remain available only to subscribers as before. Supporting subscribers exclusively benefit from access to all current and backfile content from both S2O and gated titles.
BioOne and CDL are proud to advance our shared vision of creating a more open future while ensuring the sustainability of both nonprofit publishers and libraries.
About the University of California Libraries
Individually and collectively, the University of California (UC) Libraries provide access to the world’s knowledge for the UC campuses and the communities they serve, directly supporting UC’s missions of teaching, research and public service. Open Access publishing supports the mission of the University of California by transmitting knowledge more broadly and facilitating new discoveries that build on the university’s research and scholarly work. UC generates nearly 10 percent of all research output in the United States; half of which is eligible for open access publishing under one of the university’s 17 transformative agreements. Learn more about Open Access at UC.
About BioOne
BioOne is an innovative nonprofit collaborative and the leading content aggregator in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. More than 150 global scientific societies and nonprofit publishing organizations include their journals in BioOne’s flagship product, BioOne Complete, for the benefit of 3,500 accessing institutions and millions of researchers worldwide. Since 2001, BioOne has returned more than 78 million USD in royalty sharing back to its participants, with a commitment to share research more broadly, equitably, and sustainably. Learn more about BioOne’s Subscribe to Open pilot.
Contacts
BioOne:
Amanda Rogers
Communications and Engagement Manager
University of California Libraries:
Nikki Kolupailo
