Open Access

Read and Publish (R&P) agreements are special agreements between libraries and publishers when it comes to journal articles. R&P agreements provide our taught-course students and staff the ability to:

Read - The ability to access the articles behind paywalls

Publish - The new ability to make LBS affiliated articles open access without extra fees or APCs.

(R&P deals may also be referred to as Transitional Agreements of Transformative Agreements but for our audience we refer to them as read and publish)

How researchers engage with publisher platforms from submission stage to first publication stage to associate is very important. The researcher engaging with the publisher platform should accurately record London Business School (https://ror.org/001c2sn75) as well as provide the london.edu email address and ORCID.

Further, the role of the Corresponding Author is crucial with R&P agreements as we have found it to be the only factor that determines eligibility.

LBS Library have secured a number of Read-and-Publish agreements. The below table summarises the current agreements in place as well as the requirements. Further information is available when you click on the link of the publisher names.

Unless the journal itself is an open access journal, an APC will need to be paid for the article to be immediately open access via the publisher page. 

As well as REF 2029 open access obligations, researchers may encounter situations where they are mandated to make their research outputs open access. The most common scenario is when a LBS affiliated researcher is in receipt of a grant associated to a ERC-funded project (Horizon Europe). The open science requirements of Horizon Europe (2021-2027) is provided but to summarise, peer-reviewed scientific publications need to be immediately open access in a trusted repository or open access via the publisher page with a relevant Creative Commons license. To guarantee open access, the journal either needs to be an open access title or if it is a hybrid journal, an APC needs to be paid in advance of first online publication. ERC funded papers can also benefit from Read and Publish agreements, but (as mentioned earlier) the affiliation of the Corresponding Author is paramount. 

The ERC also supports the open access of research data. The open access requirements of your research data will be specific to your grant or data management plan. While 'Supporting Data' often accompanies a peer-reviewed article, the journal may also have specific requirements for where your supporting data is held (ie a Dataverse of Subject Specific Repository). It is also worth sharing that London Business School is a member of Datacite and we can mint unique digital object identifiers (DOIs) on your behalf with access to your research data. 

In 2021, the UKRI published their open access policy for grant holders, building on their previous open access mandate. For peer-reviewed research articles submitted for publication from April 2022, open access must be 'immediate' via the use of a read-and-publish agreement, payment of an APC or publication in a journal (or proceeding) that is already open access. 

UKRI's mandate now includes monographs, book chapters and edited collections that are published from January 2024. For these output types, the open access does not need to be immediate - you will need to be open access within 12 months of publication. This is likely to include the payment of a book processing charge (BPC).

As with the ERC mandate, for the 'immediate' part of the open access mandate to be met please 'Act on Acceptance' and email openaccess@london.edu as soon as your article is formally accepted. This gives the Library Team time to ascertain if an APC grant is required, as it will need to be paid before first online publication.  

It’s plausible that there is an open access agreement may be in place. For clarification, email the Research and Faculty Office at rinfo@london.edu