The USC Libraries have signed transformative agreements with academic publishers that will broaden access to USC scholarship. Under the agreements, the publishers will make newly published articles by USC authors freely available (if the author chooses to publish as open access) to readers under an open access model.
A transformative agreement (also called read and publish agreement) is a way for institutions to maintain access to scholarly content available only through subscription, while supporting the transition to open access publishing by their affiliated researchers. Institutions are, in effect, redirecting their expenditures on subscriptions to cover the open access article processing charges.
The article processing charges (APC) are covered for researchers who are the corresponding author and choose to publish open access in journals under the publishers who have an agreement with USC Libraries. Those publishers are listed below. When submitting articles to the publishers, USC researchers are required to use their USC email address to confirm their affiliation.
The links for each publisher go to the publisher's website and link to either general submission details or are specific to publishing as open access with a Transformative Agreement (or Read & Publish). Most of your questions will be answered on the publisher's website.
*** These agreements are all negotiated through the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) and more details about these 5 agreements can be found on the SCELC Transformative Agreements Research Guide.
Contact Alyssa Resnick, Associate Dean for Technical Services and Collection Development at agresnic@usc.edu. You can also contact your subject librarian for questions about specific journals and other subject-related questions.
Scroll down to read more about the USC Libraries' agreements.
For more information on transformative agreements, two suggested readings are below.
Transformative Agreements: A Primer by Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe
Transformative Agreements from ESAC Initiative website
Updated: April 2, 2024, AGR