Making the benefits of open access (OA) available to all

STM and our members have undertaken significant work over many years to ensure that the benefits inherent in open access (OA) publishing are available to as broad a discipline and geographically wide a stakeholder group as possible. This has comprised two approaches as described below.   

(1) Improving affordability for all

STM and our members continue to work and innovate to make the ease and costs of sharing research across all regions and disciplines accessible to all at prices that enable this. This is why we have been:   

• Making OA more affordable to researchers and institutions in low- and low-middle income countries across all disciplines:
  • Waivers for article processing charges (APCs): STM members have initiatives whereby APCs are waived for authors who are in financial need, often on an automated basis: Research4Life.  
  • Transformative Agreements (TAs): expansion of TAs has led to a rapid increase in the amount of research immediately available for all to use. The ESAC Transformative Agreement Registry has documented the negotiations of libraries and consortia in more than 70 countries (including low- and middle -income countries) with 60+ publishers, to publish more than 1 million peer-reviewed articles immediately OA and without author-facing fees.
  • Subscribe to Open (S2O): some publishers are using the S2O model to aid the transition to OA, such as De Gruyter and IWA.
  • Community-based OA journals: these are journals that do not require the payment of an APC. e.g. Springer Nature’s Cureus Journal of Medical Science published 18.7k articles in 2023, 1/3 for free, remaining based on low cost editorial fees. The American Physiology Society (APS) also has a free to read and free to publish journal, Advances in Physiology Education, devoted to education in physiology. 
  • Diamond OA journals: some publishers support diamond OA journals that, through sponsorship, enable authors to publish OA without the payment of an APC, e.g. ACS’  Central Science and RSC’s Chemical Science. According to DOAJ, there are 13,000 Diamond OA Journals, many of which are published by STM member organisations.

• Supporting alternative ways to share research without additional cost:
  • Research4Life: STM members enable free or very low-cost access to 200,000 resources including subscription journals, books and databases through Research4Life in 11,500 institutions in 125 low- and middle-income countries. 
  • Preprints: publishers are supporting and encouraging authors to post their submitted manuscripts on preprint servers so that authors and the community reap the benefits of early sharing. Source: Nature.
  • Options for sharing: How Can I Share It provides guidance and options for sharing of articles in subscription-supported journals, expanding choice for researchers and ensuring that author rights are respected.  
  • Get FTR: GetFTR works with publishers and discovery resources to ensure researchers can easily discover and access the content they are entitled to read. 
  • Green OA: Some publishers allow researchers to share accepted manuscripts in publicly available repositories, such as AAAS/Science and JAMA Network.

(2) Enabling greater and more equitable participation in open science 

STM and our members are very aware of their role and responsibility in ensuring broader participation in knowledge generation across our communities, including ensuring our peer reviewers, our editors and our editorial board members are diverse and reflective of the communities we serve. They are crucial partners if we are to successfully transition to OA and meet their needs. This is why we have been: 

• Working towards a more diverse scholarly publishing industry. STM is a member of the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC), joining other influential organisations to work towards a more diverse scholarly publishing industry. C4DISC believes in valuing the skills and viewpoints of professionals from diverse backgrounds who have historically had less representation in scholarly communications. 
• Working to improve diversity across editors, editorial boards, and peer reviewers. Examples of the commitments and actions of STM members can be seen from Springer Nature, Elsevier and ACS. Other publishers also have DEI programs, including the Journal of the American Medical Asssociation, Institute Of Physics Publishing, the British Medical Journal and the American Institute of Physics.
• Increasing transparency and taking accountability, together with our society publishing partners, such as developing and implementing schema for self-reported diversity data as part of the RSC’s Joint Commitment for Action on Inclusion and Diversity in Publishing. Springer Nature also recently published a report containing DEI analysis of its external editorial boards. By taking a data driven approach, we can put in place actions, set goals and measure progress, holding us accountable to our research community. 

Future Commitment

STM and our members acknowledge that although good progress has been made, there is still much to do. We are committed to succeeding with this and this has meant that: 

• Our members are working to expand, scale and improve on the above initiatives.
• This broader dimension of equity is where STM is placing a particular focus in 2024.
• We have created a dedicated group, building on, and developing new initiatives to see us through to a more equitable OA future and ecosystem.  

Annex – Specific product/publisher examples

(1) Improving affordability for all

• Research4Life: In a United Nations (UN)-publisher partnership, STM members collaborate on subject collections including with the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).  STM’s Director of Research4Life Publisher Partnerships works with the R4L community to develop approaches to access and participation that are fit for purpose for OA publishing including best practice guidelines on APC waivers and discounts. 
• Country-specific pricing pilots: publishers are experimenting with pricing pilots to make publishing OA more affordable for authors in low- and low-middle income countries such as the Cambridge Open Equity Initiative and Elsevier.
• Collaborative funding initiatives: these may encompass broad initiatives or disciplines, such as the Open Access Books Initiative from Taylor & Francis.
• Content sharing: publishers are finding ways for researchers to share content easily and legally, such as Springer Nature’s SharedIt.

(2) Enabling greater and more equitable participation in open science 

• Assisting disadvantaged groups to level the playing field: such as Springer Nature providing additional support to female researchers in India, Elsevier’s Scientific African journal which expands access to African research, or ACS’ initiative which provides free language services to authors. Clarivate has also recently changed its policy to help level the playing field for all trustworthy journals and increase representation of OA journals and those from the Global South.
• Modifying our policies, codes of conduct and support for events to ensure a more diverse and inclusive approach, such as Springer Nature’s commitment.
• Capacity building on OA: including supporting better understanding of publishing and open research best practice, such as the T&F editorial-led program of training and resources for researchers in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Democratising participation in publishing OA: including broadening participation in editing and peer review of content by rewarding contributions, such as PeerJ.