In an effort to advance open access to research, a shift from the traditional method of reading journal content via subscription cost-based contracts toward including options for publishers and libraries to create opportunities for authors to publish their research open access without the burden of the cost is taking place. This shift is resulting in transformative agreements. So, what exactly is a transformative agreement?!
Essentially, "a contract is a transformative agreement if it seeks to shift the contracted payment from a library or group of libraries to a publisher away from subscription-based reading and towards open access publishing." (From Lisa Janicke Hinchcliffe via The Scholarly Kitchen)
Transformative agreements are usually described as either Read & Publish or Publish & Read. Both agreements remove the personal charge to an author.
A Read & Publish agreement usually stipulates that publishers receive payment for reading and for publishing bundled into one cost. This is usually cost neutral (compared to the traditional subscription agreements) for libraries, at least initially. (journal costs do rise each year at a rate of about 4-8%)
A Publish & Read agreement usually stipulates that a publisher is paid for the publishing of articles but there is no additional charge for reading. Again, usually this would be cost neutral for libraries when compared to their previous agreement.
Our current agreements (detailed on the tabs above) are all Read & Publish agreements. If a single library enters into a transformative agreement, Read & Publish and Publish & Read essentially result in the same thing. If a library enters into a transformative agreement through a consortia, differences will be apparent. Standish currently has one agreement through a consortia (Springer Nature).
It should be noted that this topic is constantly changing. Standish Library is committed to do its best to remain nimble, proactive, and on the front lines of trying to advance open research, support authors, provide access high quality, high use resources and remain financially sustainable.
This video explaining transformative agreements at Standish was generated by Lumen 5 based on the text of the Transformative Agreement in Libraries text block to the left.
