Need to know more about Open Access? This tool was designed to provide researchers at Brandon University with information regarding:
What is a Transformative Agreement?
Transformative Agreements (TAs) are licensing agreements between publishers and libraries. Their purpose it to transition institutions, libraries and researchers away from paying to access publications while at the same time paying to publish an article as open access by paying Article Processing Charges (APCs). In the transformative phase they include access to a publication and publishing costs under one license; but over the course of the agreement; there is a shift in pricing increasingly away from access towards funding open access publishing charges.
The licenses are meant to be temporary; to transition the publishing world into a new model where all publications are “Open by Default”; and once this full transition occurs licenses will be about supporting open access publishing costs. The global spectrum of this initiative will facilitate access to open research without the need to include the price of that openly funded research in the license.
The inclusion of APCs into these agreements enable researchers to affordable publish Open Access articles. Transformative Agreements require publishers to notify academics of the open access option and make it available to them. Typically this involves identifying your home institution by using your university contact information. At this point publishers will verify you belong to an institution covered by a TA.
Presently there are a range of agreements being drafted. Some cover publishing in all of a publisher’s journals while others restrict this to the publisher’s hybrid journals. Some cover 100% of APCs, while others offer discounts and these are generally referred to as pre-transformative agreements. All enable researchers to retain their copyright. All must be transparent in their costs and conditions. Finally, TAs are intended to constrain the costs of publishing, but their ability to accomplish the latter goal will be measured as time passes.
This guide provides links to Transformative Agreements we have access to at Brandon University.
