The University Libraries are dedicated to supporting the University’s commitment to research excellence. We curate and preserve information essential for scholarship and learning. Making the research and scholarship of UAlbany’s faculty, students, and staff openly available allows us to better embody our mission of promoting equitable access to knowledge and culture with our local, national, and global communities. 

The current scholarly publishing ecosystem creates barriers for researchers and has become unsustainable. In response, the Libraries offer services and support to the University community that counter this trend as we advocate for more equitable and sustainable alternatives. Included in this effort are publisher partnerships aiming to transform current models while also ensuring researchers have access to the tools necessary for their work. 

The following publisher open access agreements are in place to make it easier and more affordable for UAlbany authors to publish open access by reducing the amount that authors are responsible for paying when publishing open. The open access investments in which the Libraries participate create a sustainable route to open access, supporting initiatives that provide freely available high-quality scholarly content to anyone, anywhere.  

SUNY Cambridge University Press Transformative Agreement

SUNY has entered a three-year “read-and-publish” deal with Cambridge University Press. The deal provides expanded access to important published research from Cambridge University Press and is the first such agreement for SUNY. 

Under this three-year agreement, the UAlbany community will have access to all 400+ journals published by Cambridge University Press, and UAlbany corresponding authors will have unlimited open access publishing benefits at no additional charge to either the author or the institution. 

Beginning January 1, 2023, UAlbany corresponding authors can choose to publish their articles open access at the time of publication in Cambridge University Press journals that offers this option at no cost to the author. 

SUNY Elsevier Agreement

SUNY has entered a five-year agreement with Elsevier that provides for a 10% discount on the article publishing charge if the corresponding author is affiliated with SUNY.

This agreement applies to articles submitted between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2025 in participating Elsevier journals.

Additional details on this agreement may be found on Elsevier's SUNY Open Access Agreement page.  

University at Albany Transformative Agreements 

UAlbany has signed several three-year "read-and-publish" deals with publishers. These agreements provide access to the same suite of publications to which UAlbany currently subscribes. Additionally, UAlbany corresponding authors will have unlimited open access publishing benefits at no additional charge to either the author or the University.

Details on the specific agreements follow. 

Institute of Physics Transformative Agreement

From January 1, 2024 to January 1, 2026, the UAlbany community will have access to the same 85 journals published by IOP Science Extra, and UAlbany corresponding authors will have unlimited open access publishing benefits at no additional charge to either the author or the University in the IOP open, hybrid, and transformative agreement journals. 

American Chemical Society Transformative Agreement 

From January 1, 2024 to January 1, 2026, the UAlbany community will have access to the same 60+ journals published by ACS, and UAlbany corresponding authors will have unlimited open access publishing benefits at no additional charge to either the author or the University in ACS’s open, hybrid, and transformative agreement journals. 

Annual Reviews  

Subscribe to Open (S2O) is a model for transitioning paywalled journals to open access (OA) using existing library relationships and payments. UAlbany subscribes to Annual Reviews as we always have and, when sufficient revenue is collected through its collective subscriptions, the journal is published OA. UAlbany authors receive the open access benefits of this model without any fee.

Knowledge Unlatched 

UAlbany Libraries has joined hundreds of libraries worldwide to support Knowledge Unlatched, an organization that works with its members to crowdfund the publication of open access scholarly monographs and journals.  

UAlbany's commitment has helped “unlatch," or open, 19 Climate Change and 13 Global Health monographs. While the Libraries' participation in Knowledge Unlatched does not defray open access monograph publishing costs for UAlbany authors, the UAlbany – and global – community benefits from the Libraries’ commitment to supporting the Knowledge Unlatched model, which provides open access to high-quality scholarly content. We encourage you to explore Knowledge Unlatched to learn more.