ACS Institutional Open Access Agreements
Learn how we work with institutions to support public access mandates, explore different types of institutional agreements, and find out if your institution is one of more than 1,700 with an agreement.
Navigating a rapidly evolving environment
Open access (OA) mandates and interest vary greatly around the globe. We work closely with institutions and even country-level buying groups to find scalable, sustainable ways to meet their open access publishing needs. The articles below summarize some recent initiatives and success stories.
Types of ACS Institutional Open Access Agreements
We recognize that each institution's needs and circumstances surrounding open access are unique and we offer a variety of flexible options.
Explore an Agreement for Your InstitutionRead and Publish Agreements
Full access to all ACS journals. Institution-wide gold OA publishing. No fees for authors.
ACS read and publish agreements provide full access to ACS Publications’ subscription journal content, plus immediate gold open access publishing for affiliated corresponding authors. This means the final Version of Record will be openly available on the ACS Platform for anyone to read. Authors will have the choice of sharing either the accepted manuscript or the Version of Record immediately on publication.
These agreements offer centralized coverage of open access article publishing charges as well as a host of other benefits such as automatic article deposition.
Read and Green Agreements
Full access to all ACS journals. Institution-wide retention of copyright for accepted manuscripts. Immediate public access capabilities. No fees for authors.
ACS read and green agreements provide full access to ACS Publications’ subscription journal content, and the ability for authors to maintain copyright of the accepted manuscript, enabling them to share or deposit it at the time of publication. NIH-funded authors, for example, can be confident in their ability to deposit the accepted manuscript PubMed Central to meet public access requirements.
As an added benefit, read and green agreements may be configured to offer substantial discounts on APCs to authors who wish to upgrade their article to full open access.
Customization and Flexibility
Upgrades and customization allow institutions to tailor agreements to their unique needs and budget.
Many of our institutional open access agreements are designed to be unlimited, meaning all affiliated submitting corresponding authors are covered, regardless of how much or how little publishing occurs. Customizations, often to help control cost, may include:
- Capping the volume of publications covered each year
- Choosing a different final license type for the version of record (CC BY or CC BY-NC-ND)
- Automated or manual article deposition
We also work with institutions interested in a shared-cost approach in which the author, library, and ACS all share a stake in the cost of open publishing.
Librarians: visit the ACS Solutions Center or speak with your ACS representative to discover how we can support your institution’s unique needs.
Use our Lookup Tool to Find Institutions With Agreements
More than 1,700 institutions worldwide have an open access agreement with ACS Publications, many with unique terms.
To find out if your institution is covered and what unique benefits are available to affiliated researchers, search all of our active agreements here.