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University Libraries

Open Access Agreements with Elsevier and Cambridge now available to USC faculty and students

University of South Carolina-affiliated authors can now take advantage of two new open access agreements that will allow them to publish at no cost in many journals published by Elsevier and Cambridge.

The agreements, administered by University Libraries, add to a growing number of Open Access publishing opportunities available to members of the USC research community and reflect the Libraries’ core commitment to supporting the university’s research enterprise.

“We are excited to announce new read and publish deals with two leading publishers, Elsevier and Cambridge,” said Amie Freeman, Assistant Head of Acquisitions and Scholarly Communication at University Libraries. “USC researchers are regular contributors to Elsevier journals, and eliminating publishing costs in hybrid Elsevier journals will make open access publishing more accessible for authors. Cambridge is renowned for the quality of its titles, and we’re pleased that USC authors will be able to publish open access in Cambridge journals at no cost.”

In addition to allowing scholars to avoid incurring processing charges for publication of their work, Open Access publication can significantly enhance the visibility of an author’s work, since open access journals are typically made freely available to readers, charging no subscription fees to users or institutions.

“Given that USC affiliates published roughly 640 open access papers in Elsevier and Cambridge journals in 2023/2024, the estimated savings to cover APCs for these two publishers could be as high as $725,000 a year over the life of the deals,” said Dean of Libraries David Banush. “These are funds that can now remain in labs and departments.”

What to know about each agreement

Elsevier

The Elsevier agreement runs from 2025 – 2027 and is shared among members of the Carolina Consortium, a group of academic libraries across North and South Carolina, and is available on a first-come, first-served basis to authors at all consortium member institutions.

The agreement provides vouchers in hybrid journals (i.e., some articles are open access and some are available only to subscribers) including core hybrid journals (Annex A). The title list is available in University Libraries’ Open Access Libguide.

Corresponding authors must be currently affiliated with USC Aiken, Beaufort, Columbia, Lancaster, Salkehatchie, Sumter, Union, or Upstate as of the acceptance date and must specify institution and relevant funding source when submitting.

Read access: The deal includes subscription access to the Elsevier Freedom Collection, which includes over 2,200 journal titles, and additional access to over 30 premium Elsevier journal titles.  

Cambridge

The Cambridge agreement, also provided through the Carolina Consortium, runs from 2025 – 2026 and offers unlimited publication opportunities in eligible journals for corresponding USC Columbia authors publishing original research (research articles, review articles, rapid communications, brief reports, case reports).

Eligibility is based on the corresponding author’s affiliation – make sure to select/supply affiliation accurately when prompted during submission process. Upon acceptance, follow email instructions from Cambridge to complete your author publishing agreement and select gold OA for your costs to be waived.   

Read (subscription) access is also available to Cambridge Journals Online – Full Package 


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