Cambridge Open Access
Supporting your transformative agreement Welcome to the start of your journey
Grow support for open access on campus Need more resources? Download our bank of images to use on social media, across the library website and in your newsletters to promote open access publishing
The following resources can be shared directly with your researchers and faculty to explain what open access is, including the benefits of open access publishing with Cambridge.
Watch our introduction to open access
Share the benefits of publishing open access
For more open access video resources, visit to Cambridge Core
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Open access myth-busting
Publishing open access can often be misunderstood and we have highlighted five common misconceptions about open access. Share these resources on your library website and in your newsletters to help researchers understand the truth behind open access and the benefits it can offer.
We have created a short infographic that can be shared with your researchers to help bust OA myths on campus.
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Myth: Open access means low quality All open access article and book submissions to Cambridge go through the same peer review and publication process as non-OA submissions.
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Myth: Open access is too expensive for me We have open access publishing agreements with +2500 institutions globally, meaning you may be able to publish your work open access at no cost to you.
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Myth: There’s no benefit to me Open access content is freely available online, not hidden behind a paywall, meaning increased discoverability and usage, and higher citations and downloads for your work.
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Myth: I’m giving up all my copyrights Open access articles in our fully Gold OA and hybrid journals are published under Creative Commons (CC) licences, meaning you retain the original copyright to your work while enabling readers to freely access and re-distribute your article. Our open access books are also published under a CC licence.
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Myth: Paying an APC means instant acceptance There are many less reputable publications (so called ‘predatory journals’) who will request payment up front for publication, but any payment required for our open access journal articles is taken after peer review and acceptance.
Why should OA be your researchers first choice for publication? Unlock the truth about open access publishing with our myth-busting video.
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Raise awareness of your institution’s agreement with Cambridge Transformative Agreements By country/region (Spring 2024)
Your agreement has a dedicated page hosted on Cambridge Core which explains useful information for your researchers, including details about eligible article types and the eligible journals for publication.
Norway Denmark
Sweden Germany
Finland
Estonia
Luxembourg
Canada
Netherlands
Latvia
Lithuania
Poland
Belgium
United Kingdom Ireland France Spain Switzerland Austria Slovakia Italy
United States Mexico
Bespoke imagery is available for internal promotion of your agreement. We have an image bank available which can be used across your channels to promote your agreement and subject specific content that your subject librarians and faculty can use.
Chile
Czech Republic Kazakhstan Hungary Japan South Korea China
Ghana Serbia Greece Türkiye Uganda
India Oman
Saudi Arabia
Lebanon
Namibia South Africa
Indonesia
United Arab Emirates
Palestine Cyprus
Taiwan Macau Hong Kong Thailand Singapore Fiji Australia
New Zealand
Israel
Researchers can also use our Eligibility Checker on Cambridge Core to check their eligibility for support for Gold Open Access - we recommend sharing this tool with researchers so they can see which journals and articles are eligible for funding support.
If there is anything bespoke you would like created for your institution, just reach out to us at library.marketing@cambridge.org
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To help raise awareness about your institution’s transformative agreement we have curated some messaging suggestions for use on social media – don’t forget to shout about access too.
Publish #OpenAccess at no cost to you! Check your eligibility to publish in over 420 journals from Cambridge University Press. Find out more
#OpenAccess articles typically receive higher downloads and citations and are free to read by anyone, anywhere. Our agreement with Cambridge University Press means <institution> can publish OA at no cost.
You have access to thousands of articles from Cambridge University Press through [the university]. Explore leading research, download articles, and easily export citations from Cambridge Core.
Publish your next paper #OpenAccess with Cambridge University Press. Benefit from increased visibility and impact, meaning more citations and downloads for your article. <institution> researchers can publish #OpenAccess with no cost to them.
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Support your researchers in publishing open access with Cambridge Open access publishing can be confusing for your researchers, especially with the differing workflows and all the jargon. Improve their experience by sharing the resources on this page. Help your researchers navigate their publishing journey with confidence, by recommending our Cambridge Author Services. We offer services ranging from English language editing and academic translation, to assistance with manuscript formatting and journal selection, ensuring the manuscript meets journal standard for submission.
Cambridge Open Access Publishing your article open access under a Cambridge transformative agreement
A step-by-step guide
1 Manuscript Preparation Find your chosen journal on Cambridge Core Review the Instructions for Authors under the ‘Information’ section Format your manuscript according to these instructions
2 Manuscript Submission Click ‘Submit your article’ on your chosen journal’s homepage Complete the submission form in the journal’s Online Peer Review System (OPRS) Please ensure you select or supply your affiliation accurately when prompted during the submission process
3 Manuscript Review and Publication Decision
A breakdown of the process of publishing an open access article with Cambridge, from manuscript preparation to article production and publication.
Your manuscript goes through Editorial and Peer Review. Check the status within the OPRS The manuscript will be accepted, rejected, or sent for further revision and review
4 Open Access Author Publishing Agreement Upon acceptance, follow email instructions from Cambridge to complete your author information form and sign your publishing agreement. Select the gold open access option, if available, to take advantage of your organisation’s transformative agreement. Confirm the Creative Commons license under which the article should be published. Please ensure you comply with any license type requirements specified by your institution or funding body
5 APC Transaction Process Rightslink® work on Cambridge’s behalf to process open access publication costs
Further information Explore our publishing OA i nformation page Use our waiver and discount tool to discover more about your institution’s agreement Contact your library for further information or email OAqueries@cambridge.org with any questions
If your article complies with all relevant eligibility criteria for your institution’s agreement with Cambridge, your publishing costs will be waived – no author input is required Your library may need to approve your waiver via the Rightslink® Institutional Portal
Visit Cambridge Core for digital resources, including our OA librarian hub and our OA publishing hub.
6 Article Production Your article will move through the production process: Copy editing > Typesetting > Author proof > Final typesetting Find out more: cambridge.org/production
7 Article Publication You will be notified upon the publication of your article via an email from Cambridge.
Cambridge Open Access
Glossary
Article Processing Charge (APC)
Creative Commons (CC) licences
The costs of publishing an article Gold Open Access are typically supported by an article processing charge (APC). The cost of an APC can be covered in various ways, including by funding bodies, institutions, agreements between publishers and institutions, and sometimes by the author themself. At Cambridge, APCs are often waived for authors who do not have access to grant or institutional funding, to ensure that they do not present a barrier to publication.
Creative Commons (CC) licences play an important role in facilitating Gold Open Access publishing. They provide a legal framework for giving readers the ability to freely view, download and re-distribute content. We offer authors a choice of Creative Commons licences that they can apply to their work, which differ in terms of the rights they grant end users. All CC licences require that those redistributing or re-using the work give appropriate credit and indicate if changes were made. Authors might be required or advised by their funders to choose particular CC licences, such as CC-BY or CC-BYND, when publishing their research as Gold OA. For more information see our guidance on CC licences.
Any payment request for an APC is only made after an article has been accepted for publication, and APCs are only applicable for content that is published Gold OA. In other cases no APC is required. May also be known as: Publication fee, OA publication fee
Cambridge Open Equity Initiative (COEI) The Cambridge Open Equity Initiative is designed to support authors in low- and middle-income countries who wish to publish their research Gold Open Access, but do not have access to funding. The Initiative is delivered through collective funding, bringing together financial support from Cambridge and our institutional partners. Authors are automatically recognised as eligible for support during the manuscript submission process.
cOAlition S cOAlition S is a group of national research funding organisations, with the support of the European Commission and the European Research Council (ERC), whose goal is to ensure all the research they fund is made open access immediately on publication.
Corresponding author The person who handles the manuscript and correspondence during the publication process – from manuscript submission, to handling any revisions up to the acceptance and publication of the manuscript. Cambridge uses the affiliation of the corresponding author to determine eligibility for any institutional open access agreements. For full details of the corresponding
Our glossary of OA terms will assist researchers in understanding the jargon surrounding open access and the terminology used by most publishers.
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) DOAB is a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed open access books, as well as helping users to find trusted open access book publishers.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) DOAJ hosts a community-curated list of open access journals, maintained by Infrastructure Services for Open Access (IS4OA).
Double-dipping Double-dipping is a term used to describe cases where both authors and readers are being charged for the same content. Cambridge has robust policies and processes in place to avoid double-charging in this way. As the proportion of non-open access content published by a journal decreases, this is reflected by a reduction in subscription prices. Full details of how this works can be found in our transparent pricing policy for journals.
To find the definition of other OA terms, view our online open access glossary.
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New titles joining and launching with Cambridge in 2025
Federal Law Review
Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus
Signs and Society
Psychometrika
Research Synthesis Experimental Methods Economics
Public Humanities
Journal of Nonlinear Waves
Cambridge Prisms: Carbon Technologies
Cambridge Prisms: Energy Transitions
Cambridge Forum is our new open access series which will publish curated themed issues that bring together peer reviewed, cross-disciplinary research from across the humanities and social sciences.
To provide support to your researchers, we recommend staying up-to-date on changes to our journals portfolio.
Computational Humanities Research
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Know your Cambridge OA facts
68%
of research content published in 2024 was open access
428
journals publishing open access content
100k+
open access articles
We are committed to support open research and transforming the vast majority of journal research publishing to open access. In 2025, we will be flipping 60 journals to Gold open access (including all 7 titles joining Cambridge) and 19 journals to Research Open. See the full list of titles here.
For more information visit www.cambridge.org/oa-lib-hub email: library.marketing@cambridge.org or get in touch with your local sales contact
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