Reflecting on Jisc’s transitional agreements review

Earlier this month (March 2024), UK library consortium Jisc released a review of transitional agreements in the UK. The report praised the community for the increased levels of engagement with open access (OA) across the UK, but at the same time recognised that the transition to full and immediate OA that transformative agreements (TAs) promised has been slow to materialise.

We welcome this critical review into the state of TAs and open access in the UK and are proud to see that Jisc has highlighted our work to move towards an open future, as well as our pace in doing so. We lead the way in transformative agreement coverage, with over 2,000 institutions covered globally.

We have a clear and ambitious roadmap that enables us to make these advances and the drive to open access is felt throughout our organisation. As Managing Director Mandy Hill states, "Transformative agreements have provided an important route towards open access for all authors, irrespective of their funding. However, it’s important they are seen as a key stepping stone, not a destination or the only route, to full open access.”

We are proud to note that since December 2022 – when Jisc drew the data that informs the report – we have made significant strides in continuing to make our research more accessible. In 2023, 63 per cent of research articles published by Cambridge were open access – up from 51 per cent in 2022.

This pace of transformation will continue into 2024 and beyond: this year we will be converting 42 journals to open access, making 27 per cent of our journals list (116 of over 400 total titles) OA. More than 70 titles will be converted in 2025, bringing our total percentage of open access journals close to 50 per cent. 

An increase in open access content should result in a decrease in the proportion of paywalled (non-OA) content, however the review noted that around 40 per cent of UK output has remained behind a paywall for the last five years. At Cambridge, however, we are pleased to have recorded a reduction in paywalled content from 49 per cent in 2022 to 37 per cent last year.

Jisc’s report notably observed considerable growth in OA uptake in disciplines with lower levels of research funding – including the arts, humanities and social sciences. Ella Colvin, Director of Publishing, Journals commented on the report, 

“We are delighted to read of this progress, given our commitment to supporting a sustainable transition to open access for our entire list, including our humanities and social sciences journals which comprise 65% of our journals programme. We also continue to support our learned societies to transition successfully to open.” 

Our fair and transparent pricing is highlighted in the Jisc report, most notably the introduction of our fair pricing policy in 2018, designed to mitigate the impact of double dipping. We are committed to transparency, through regular sharing of our open research roadmap and our engagement with cOAlition S.

The report underscores the progress being made in ensuring research is more accessible while highlighting that there is plenty of work to be done. As a University Press embedded in the communities we serve, and striving for diversity across our publishing, ensuring equity within publishing is a core part of our mission to advance knowledge and contribute to society through education and research. 

We are excited to be working with our partners and institutions on the Cambridge Open Equity Initiative (COEI). The Initiative fully funds open access publishing for authors in 107 countries, including 5,000 institutions, where there is a cost barrier – over 150 authors have benefitted from the scheme to date. 

The challenges to achieving a full transition to open are considerable and often complicated to solve. We are looking hard for, and in many cases creating, the solutions required; but some aspects of the change will require more radical, shared solutions that are only possible through cross-stakeholder group co-operation. We hope such collaboration will help fuel the rate and level of change, and bring sustainable, beneficial change for the academic communities we serve.