The recent uptake in Open Access mandates from funders, including RGC, has led to more authors seeking to publish OA and deposit their works in institutional repositories. Publishers have been transforming their business models to comply with funders’ requirements. University libraries have also started exploring journal subscription contracts, hoping to get the best arrangement for researchers to read scientific articles and to publish in Open Access. The Read & Publish Agreement with Cambridge University Press (CUP) is a pilot run to support this initiative.
The PolyU Library's Read & Publish agreement with Cambridge University Press (CUP) lets PolyU researchers publish in CUP journals with Article Processing Charge (APC) fully waived during the period 2021-2023 while having full reading access to CUP journals based on Library’s subscription.
| Who are eligible? | Any quota limit? |
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All PolyU staff and students can use this waiver, provided that:
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There is no limit for eligible PolyU authors to publish Open Access articles in CUP journals. APC will be fully waived as long as the articles are accepted within the valid period of the agreement (2021-2023). |
| Which journals are included? | Any requirement on article type? |
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Only the journals with Open Access articles (Gold OA and Hybrid OA) are included in this exercise. This would cover over 90% of the peer-reviewed academic journals published by CUP. |
The article should be one of the 5 article types:
For details about article type definitions, please refer to this page. |
If you are publishing your article in Open Access in CUP journals, here are the steps and things to take note of at different publishing stages.
| Stages | Steps | Things to take note |
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Manuscript Submission |
1. Go to the homepage of your journal and click Submit your article. 2. Complete the submission form. |
Make sure the corresponding author uses PolyU affiliation, address and email for submission. The article should be one of these 5 types: Research article, Review article, Rapid communications, Brief report, or Case report. |
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Manuscript Accepted |
3. Once the article has been accepted, follow the instructions in the acceptance email, fill in and submit the Open Access Author Publishing Agreement (APA). 4. Choose a Creative Commons license which will determine how readers can use your article. |
Do make sure PolyU’s affiliation is appearing on the manuscript at the time of acceptance. This will affect whether the APC can be waived or not. Creative Commons licenses consist of a suite of licenses that permit others to use, distribute and reproduce your work, as long as the work is properly cited. Commonly used ones include: CC BY, CC BY-NC, and CC BY-NC-ND. Learn more here. |
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APC Transaction |
5. Within 48 hours after APA is submitted, you will receive an email from Rightslink system requesting to settle APC. Choose “Seek funding from PolyU” and complete the form. |
Register a Rightslink account if you haven’t done so. This is a required step in order to claim the APC waiver. |
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Publication Online |
6. Your article is published in Open Access! |
Journals that are Gold Open Access and hybrid OA journals can publish articles in open access. This means that your research article will be openly accessible upon publishing and not kept behind a paywall. You can check against the CUP's List of Journals with Open Access articles. You should also be able to find this information from the journal’s homepage.
Many authors publish articles in journals that are only accessible by paid subscribers. Authors can still go OA by sharing a version of the work in an OA repository. In PolyU, researchers are required to deposit the final accepted manuscript in PIRA, our institutional repository, if the work is not published in open access. This is the other option to make your work OA. Learn more about OA Archiving and how to deposit your work in PIRA.
No. Whether you choose to publish OA or keep your article behind a paywall, your article will undergo the same rigorous peer review to sustain the high quality of the journals. The editor’s decision to accept or reject your article won't be affected by the mode you choose either. The only difference takes place after your paper gets accepted. If you publish in OA, your article will be immediately available to everyone, and as an author, you retain the copyright of your article.
Unfortunately, this agreement covers journals only.
Yes. The Library will continue to work with other publishers to explore the best option for our researchers to publish OA. Most of such agreements require complicated discussions and negotiations with publishers as it also involves journal subscription costs paid by the Library to the publishers for PolyU users to read scientific articles. These agreements are called “Transformative Agreements” or similar agreements such as “Subscribe to Open” model. Learn more about these agreements here.
