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Read and Publish Agreements

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What is a read and publish agreement?

A Read and Publish (R&P) Agreement has three main characteristics:

  • The journal is published as a hybrid open access journal. This means that some articles within the journal are openly available, and the rest are only available to read via a subscription.
  • The library holds a subscription to the journal for read access for CQUniversity students and staff.
  • CQUniversity researchers are entitled to free publishing via the waiving of Article Processing Charges.

Globally, read and publish agreements are gaining traction as a way for the research community, and publishers, to transition to an open access publishing future.

However they are only a small part of a wider open access movement, including OA publishing models like Green, Gold, and Diamond. 

If you are looking to publish via open access, you should first focus on selecting the best quality OA journal rather than the OA publishing model.

Available Read and Publish Agreements at CQUniversity

The Library has signed up to agreements with the following publishers:

Before Submission

Prior to using a read and publish agreement it is important that you understand the following information: 

Some read and publish agreements have publishing caps across Australia. This limits the number of articles which can be published open access under the agreement; it is first come, first served. These caps are refreshed at the beginning of each year.

Check to see if your publisher has reached their cap limit.

Different publishers accept different article types within their read and publish agreements, for example a case study may be accepted, but a media review may not be. Use the “Information for Authors” section on the read and publisher agreement links above to find out what article types are accepted and how they are defined by your publisher. This can assist you to be strategic in your choice, perhaps even changing your article type, to fit the publisher criteria.

It’s important to evaluate open access journal quality regardless of whether you are using the read and publish agreements or not. ​ 

Strategically choosing a good quality journal means considering journal's reputation, inclusion in discipline specific lists or Scimago Quartile ranking to ensure you are choosing a good quality journal and avoid predatory publishers.

For further information on evaluating journal quality, visit the Journal Rankings and Choosing a Journal help page.

As the copyright holder, it is important that you are aware of the details included in publishing agreements, which can outline your current and future dissemination options. One critical area to be aware of is the information outlining whether you are allowed to deposit your Authors Accepted Manuscript into an institutional repository, like aCQUIRe. 

For further information, see the Open Access and Creative Commons page.

At Submission/Acceptance

To access a CQUniversity read and publish agreement, you will need to be the corresponding author and you must use your CQUniversity email address for article submission.

Note: The corresponding author doesn't have to be the lead author.

A read and publish agreement requires your work to be published under a Creative Commons license - this means that your work will be made freely available under the terms of the license. 

Typically, the license will be automatically selected in the submission process, but you may have the choice to change the type of Creative Commons license. 

For further information on Creative Commons licenses see the Open Access and Creative Commons page.

To access the authors' rights and retention statement see the Open Access Publishing page.

Some publishers are now requesting signature of an exclusive or non-exclusive right to publish license prior to publication. 

Under a read and publish agreement you will be agreeing to a creative commons license which covers your ability to reuse and distribute the work more widely, however the publisher may request first publication rights, under an exclusive or non-exclusive agreement. 

If you are asked to sign one of these agreements read the agreement carefully prior to signing to make sure you still have the right to reuse your own work, i.e. deposit your AAM into aCQUIRe or for RHD students use the paper as part of your thesis. 

If you need assistance, please contact the library via my-librarian@cqu.edu.au 

A few publishers may try to charge you to make your Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM) immediately accessible in a repository.

If you have ensured that you have retained copyright over your manuscript during the negotiations with the publisher you have the right to deposit your manuscript and should not be charged for this. 

Please contact the library for support at my-librarian@cqu.edu.au.

There are a range of other fees that publishers may charge. 

If you are charged for any of these fees outside of the article processing charge, please contact the library for support at my-library@cqu.edu.au 

  • Additional page fee:  A fee charged per published pages that fall outside the set publisher page limit, for instance $75 or $150 per “extra” page.
  • Colour fee: Some journals may charge to publish images/figures in colour.
  • Permission fee: The publisher may impose charges to secure permission for the reuse of third-party copyrighted material. Typically obtaining third-party party copyright permission is the responsibility of the author.
  • Submission fee: A submission fee is a price an author pays to submit to the journal.

After Publication

Add your article to Research Elements

You will need to add your article in Research Elements to ensure that it is:

  • included in reporting for CQUniversity.
  • added to your staff profile. 
  • uploaded to aCQUIRe.

Promote your article

Now that your article has been published, you need to promote it to increase the reach of your research.

  • share the link on social media platforms, e.g. X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and Instagram.
  • Add your publication’s Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to your email signature.
  • List your articles on your website or blog. ​

Frequently Asked Questions

Read and publish agreements are only a small part Open Access publishing. If the journal you want to publish in is fully open (Gold Open Access) then the library does not pay a subscription for access. In this case you should apply to the Open Access Journal Scheme for funding to support your article processing charges. 

See the Open Access Publishing page more information on how to publish your research openly.

Read and publish agreements cover the waiving of any article processing charges for CQUniversity authors, however there may be other additional fees, depending on your requirements. 

If you are charged for any additional fees, please contact the library for clarification at my-librarian@cqu.edu.au.

Each publisher has different item types and definitions included in their read and publish agreement. If a publisher reclassifies your article so that it no longer meets their read and publish criteria, reach out to them directly to come to a resolution.

You can also consider other publishing options like the Open Access Publication Scheme or submitting your AAM to Research Elements and aCQUIRe.

Some publishers will offer you alternate publishing options, which include “Mirror” or “Sister journals” that have similar sounding journal titles. 

Mirror or sister journals usually have the same editorial board and selection criteria as journal they are replicating. 

These publications however are usually not included in the read and publish agreements as they are fully open access journals, and you will be required to pay an article processing charge.

If you have been offered an alternative publishing option, please contact the library for support at my-librarian@cqu.edu.au