Negotiations to establish new Read and Publish agreements with five major commercial journal publishers are well underway.
In consultation with the Cambridge academic community and across the Higher Education sector, the first offers from the publishers were not accepted. Negotiations continued to improve their offers. All publishers have now submitted second offers for consideration.
All existing agreements are fully in place until 31 December 2025.
What’s happening?
Negotiations are taking place this year to establish new Read and Publish agreements with five of the major commercial journal publishers – Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, and Sage.
The new agreements being negotiated are for 2026 onwards. Current agreements covering reading and publishing in journals owned by these publishers are still in place until 31 December 2025.
The negotiations are sector wide, involving many other UK universities alongside us. Jisc – the not-for-profit UK digital, data and technology agency focused on tertiary education, research and innovation – is representing the higher education sector in these negotiations.
Jisc works with the publishers on their renewal offers and consults with the sector on the acceptability of the publishers’ offers. Throughout this process, we are consulting regularly with the academic and research community at Cambridge.
What we are asking for
Part of the Next Generation Open Access programme, these negotiations seek to accelerate the transition to more sustainable and inclusive publishing models. Its two overarching goals are to:
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achieve cost savings and long-term financial sustainability by securing agreements that reflect the sector’s financial realities.
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broaden participation in research by promoting equity and inclusivity in research dissemination by moving away from article-based models.
Key factors we are considering in negotiations:
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academic needs across disciplines for teaching and research
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our financial position
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advancing open research
We’ll prioritise agreements with publishers that make positive steps towards what’s right for the academic community and the advancement of research.
Which journals are included in the negotiations?
All journals published by Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, and Sage.
You can look up the journals that matter to you at: https://www.openresearch.cam.ac.uk/publications/read-publish-agreements
Do I need to do anything differently this year?
All existing agreements are fully in place until the end of this year for reading and publishing. You don’t need to do anything differently this year.
For researchers publishing work, remember to deposit your articles in the University’s research repository Apollo by uploading the file to your Symplectic Elements account. This allows you to retain your rights and ensures you meet REF and other funder requirements to publish open access. If you need help with this or have questions about open access and funder requirements, you can contact the University's Open Access team.
What are the issues with the current agreements?
The deals with these five publishers cost millions every year, across the sector, and for Cambridge individually.
The current pricing model for the read and publish agreements uses costly article processing charges (APCs), which is a charge from the publisher per article for making research open access. This can cost thousands per article, which limits or even excludes some researchers in less well funded institutions, locations and disciplines.
At the same time, the agreements overlook the unpaid contributions of academics and researchers to publishers: universities and researchers provide research free of charge, pay to publish it, provide unpaid peer review and editorial services, and then pay to read the articles. Publishers provide a service and want to make a profit, but this must be in proportion – with fair agreements that work with, not against, the research community they rely on.
Everywhere, including Cambridge, has reduced budgets and tough choices within that – rising costs in one area has consequences for investment in others.
What happens if new agreements can’t be reached before 2026?
It is in everyone’s interest to have new agreements in place with all five publishers before 2026.
If that’s looking like it won’t be possible, with any of the publishers, we have detailed contingency plans, which we’ll share with you before any change in access happens.
Why these negotiations matter
The current pricing model has been unfair for some time and has led to unsustainable costs for universities and barriers for many researchers.
We want to invest in fair, inclusive and sustainable agreements that best serve the academic and research community.
By prioritising inclusivity, integrity and collaboration within the research ecosystem, we can accelerate knowledge discoveries, support economic growth, raise standards, and ensure the UK, and of course Cambridge, remains a global leader in research and innovation.
How can I give my views?
We are consulting with students, researchers and academics at all levels across the University throughout this process. We’ll keep this web page up to date, including adding new FAQs and new information as we have it to share. Please do participate in meetings, town halls and surveys as they come up.
If you have any questions or want to give feedback individually, you can use this simple feedback form.
For further information, you can contact info@openaccess.cam.ac.uk
We are working to get the best deals for you and it really matters what you think.
Latest update
Negotiations to establish new Read and Publish agreements for 2026 with five major commercial journal publishers are well underway.
None of the publishers first offers were accepted. Negotiations continued to improve their offers. All publishers have now submitted second offers for consideration.
Taylow & Francis submitted their second offer early, initiating a separate consultation that closed end of October.
The second offers recently received by Sage, Wiley, Springer Nature and Elsevier are being considered and our response to Jisc will be submitted by the deadline 1 December 2025.
To protext the negotiation process, we can't give details of the offers on this website. Each publisher has made their offer separately and agreements made at any time will be with each publisher individually.
We will be sharing details of the offers securely within the University via briefing papers and committees, and we are very happy to have conversations with people who are interested. For further information on the offers contact info@openaccess.cam.ac.uk.
Last updated 12/11/2025