An agreement with the UC system and the American Chemical Society, or ACS, will allow every UC-authored article in the ACS to be published open access.
Open access means that these researchers’ works will be available to more people and have a greater impact, particularly in lower-income countries, according to Jeff MacKie-Mason, UC Berkeley librarian.
MacKie-Mason noted that this has been a long-term goal of the UC Academic Senate and UC libraries. He added this will also include a lower cost of publication for the researchers.
“ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people,” said Erin Celentano, director of ACS marketing communications and community development, in an email.
The ACS, which is also the fourth-largest publisher of scholarly journals, is a nonprofit organization funded by the U.S. Congress, according to Celentano. He noted that ACS journals are amongst the most cited and trusted sources in chemical research.
The agreement provides members of the UC system access to scholarly content that is only accessible via subscription through 2025. It will also support open access publication in ACS’ gallery of more than 75 journals, MacKie-Mason said.
“This is a “publish and read” agreement, like most of the other nearly 15 transformative open access publishing agreements the UC has negotiated in the past three years,” Celentano said in an email.
While all UC-authored articles can now be published open access, the author can choose to change the publication to subscription-only, according to MacKie-Mason. He added everyone at the university will be able to read all articles under the ACS publication.
In regards to the publication process, the authors will now need to fill out a web-based publication form that covers the open access publishing agreement, MacKie-Mason noted.
“The deal is available to corresponding authors who are affiliated with any of the 58 institutions included in the University of California system, California State University system or the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium,” Celentano said in the email.
Celentano emphasized this collaboration is “unique” in regards to its engagement of funder support for open access resources with the work between the institutes and publisher.
It is also the first collaboration agreement in the United States for the ACS, according to Celentano. He noted the ACS is excited to see the support they have received from these institutions in their goal to create an open-access publishing model that is both equitable and sustainable.
“As the scholarly publishing industry transitions toward an open access future,” Celentano said in the email. “Innovations like this partnership will be crucial to ensuring that all educational institutions and their researchers can participate in the full benefits of open access publication.”
