Prepaid open access

The University of Borås participates in so called read and publish agreements that can make it free for authors to publish articles with open access in many different journals.

Search journals with publisher agreements

Use the search tool SciFree to search for journals with publisher agreements.

What are read and publish agreements?

Read and publish agreements (also called transformative agreements) are negotiated by the National Library of Sweden through the Bibsam consortium. With the agreements the university is part of, the library pays a yearly fee to publishers, so that our researchers don't get any article processing charges (or discounted article processing charges) for open access in selected journals.

What do you have to do to use the agreements?

The requirement for taking part of an agreement through the University of Borås is that the greater part of the research an article is based on should have been done while at UB. It is also important that the corresponding author lists UB as their main affiliation, and use their @hb email address in the publisher's system. In cases where the corresponding author is at another university that is part of Bibsam the same agreement can be used, but this will then be administrated by the relevant university.

What is the practical process?

The various publishers have different processes. Usually the author is asked to choose an open access option, and then the library is contacted to check that the author details are correct. If it's not immediately clear that the article should be handled by HB we might contact the author, or reject the article. Otherwise we approve the article as soon as we have checked it, without the author having to do anything further to make this happen.

How do I know if a particular journal is part of our agreements?

First you need to find out which publisher publishes the journal. Then you can go through the publishers listed on this page to see if it is part of our agreements. Please note that some publishers don't include all journals in the agreements.

What does the number of articles per year mean?

This information is included to show what kind of agreements we have with different publishers. Even if the maximum number of articles in an agreement is reached, the library will cover open access charges in the eligible journals.

Questions?

If you have questions about any of our agreements, or about open access to research, please email librarian Signe Wulund.

Publishers that are part of our agreements and offer open access at no (or lower) charge in some or all of their journals:

Copernicus is a geoscience publisher. The agreement with Copernicus offers paid* publishing in their roughly 50 open access journals.

* The Swedish research funders Vetenskapsrådet, Forte, Formas and Vinnova have decided to fund publishing costs in fully open publishers. MJS is part of this decision, which means that all researchers at participating organisations (which includes the University of Borås) can publish with open access to no cost to their institution or Bibsam.

Workflow for publishing

Articles published within the agreement are identified when a manuscript is submitted to one of Copernicus' journals. Corresponding authors choose the alternatives Swedish universities, university colleges, public agencies, and research institutes in a drop-down menu, and then Borås University.

Agreement period

2026

eLife is a nonprofit scientific journal that publishes research within medicine and life sciences.

* The Swedish research funders Vetenskapsrådet, Forte, Formas and Vinnova have decided to fund publishing costs in fully open publishers. eLife is part of this decision, which means that all researchers at participating organisations (which includes the University of Borås) can publish with open access to no cost to their institution or Bibsam.

Workflow for publishing

eLife only reviews articles that have been made available as preprints. Preprints that have been reviewed can, if the authors choose to, then be published as traditional journal articles (Version of Record) in the journal.

eLife checks if any of the corresponding authors are based in Sweden, and then identifies articles in the agreement by matching the given affiliations to a list of participating Bibsam consortium organisations.

Agreement period

2026

Frontiers publishes journals in the fields of STEM, social sciences and the humanities. They currently have close to 230 open access journals.

The agreement with Frontiers is a publishing agreement that covers publication in all the publisher's journals. The agreement covers all types of articles.

The Swedish research funders Vetenskapsrådet, Forte, Formas and Vinnova have decided to fund publishing costs in fully open publishers. Frontiers is part of this decision, which means that all researchers at participating organisations (which includes the University of Borås) can publish with open access to no cost to their institution or Bibsam.

Workflow for publishing

Corresponding author indicates that they are part of a Bibsam organisation when they send in the manuscript. To ensure that the article is published within the agreement, the author should use the e-mail address tied to the organisation in question (at the University of Borås this is the @hb.se address).

Agreement period

2026

More information

List of journals on Frontiers' website

Publication fee

No open access article processing charge for corresponding authors from participating organisations for an unlimited number of articles in the majority of IOP's journals. (American Astronomical Society's journal is not included, and neither are a number of Chinese and Vietnamese journals.)

Agreement period

2025-2028

More information

IOP's website

JMIR is short for "Journal of Medical Internet Research" which is the name of the first journal that started publication in 1999. The current name of the publisher is JMIR Publications and focuses on publishing scientific articles and research results related to the use of technology within healthcare and medicine. The publisher's current 35 journals covers subjects such as e-health, telemedicine, and medical informatics.

The Swedish research funders Vetenskapsrådet, Forte, Formas and Vinnova have decided to fund publishing costs in fully open publishers. JMIR is part of this decision, which means that all researchers at participating organisations (which includes the University of Borås) can publish with open access to no cost to their institution or Bibsam.

Workflow for publishing within the agreement

Acceptance is based on the corresponding author's affiliation and e-mail address (@hb.se). JIMR Publications will use this information to identify which articles are included in the agreement.

Agreement period

2026

MDPI publishes journals on a wide spectrum of subjects—mostly STEM, while the humanities and social sciences make up a smaller portion of the portfolio. Today MDPI publishes nearly 500 open access journals, including a number published in collaboration with scientific societies.

The agreement with MDPI is a publishing agreement that covers publication in all the publisher's journals. The agreement covers all types of articles.

The Swedish research funders Vetenskapsrådet, Forte, Formas and Vinnova have decided to fund publishing costs in fully open publishers. Since 2026 MDPI is part of this decision, which means that all researchers at participating organisations (which includes the University of Borås) can publish with open access to no cost to their institution or Bibsam.

Workflow for publishing

Agreement period

2026

More information

List of journals on MDPI's website

MJS Publishing (previously Medical Journals Sweden) is a Swedish publisher that publishes all open access journals within the field of medicine. The agreement with MJS Publishing offers paid* publishing in all nine of their journals:

Acta Dermato-Venereologica
Acta Odontologica Scandinavica
Acta Oncologica
Acta Orthopaedica
Biomaterial Investigations in Dentistry
Journal of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery
Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine
Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine - Clinical Communications
Scandinavian Journal of Urology

Workflow for publishing

Agreement period

2026

Publication fee

No open access article processing charge for corresponding authors from participating organisations in the publisher's journals (~360 hybrid journals and ~140 fully open journals).

Ingen publiceringsavgift för corresponding authors från deltagande organisationer i publicering med öppen tillgång i förlagets tidskrifter (ca 360 hybridtidskrifter och ca 140 helt öppna tidskrifter).

The following 13 journals are not covered by the publishing agreement:
Astronomy & Geophysics
Children and Schools
European Heart Journal Supplements
Food Science and Technology
Health and Social Work
Itnow
JNCI Monographs
Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics
Shakespeare Quarterly
Significance
Social Work
Social Work Research

Agreement period

2026-2029

More information

OUP's information for authors.

PLOS is a non-profit publisher that only publishes open access journals. They publish 15 journals, mostly within the fields of medicine and the natural sciences. The agreement with PLOS Publishing offers paid* publishing in all their journals:

Annual Flat Fee
- PLOS Aging and Health (new 2026)
- PLOS Digital Health
- PLOS Ecosystems (new 2026)
- PLOS ONE
- PLOS Computational Biology
- PLOS Pathogens
- PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
- PLOS Genetics
- PLOS Complex Systems
Global Equity
- PLOS Climate
- PLOS Water
- PLOS Global Public Health
- PLOS Mental Health
Community Action Publishing
- PLOS Biology
- PLOS Medicine
- PLOS Sustainability & Transformation

* The Swedish research funders Vetenskapsrådet, Forte, Formas and Vinnova have decided to fund publishing costs in fully open publishers. PLOS is part of this decision, which means that all researchers at participating organisations (which includes the University of Borås) can publish with open access to no cost to their institution or Bibsam.

Workflow for publishing

Agreement period

2026

Publication fee

No article processing charge for articles in Springer Nature's fully open journals, and the majority of the publisher's hybrid journals. The journal Nature and other journals under the imprint Nature (38 hybrid journals and 26 subscription only journals) are not covered by this agreement.

Information from the publisher about the publication process:

Agreement period

2025-2028

More information

Springer Nature's website

Back to the top of this webpage