Researchers from 180 UK universities can now benefit from a national open access deal agreed between Jisc Collections, which undertakes negotiations and licensing for digital content agreements on behalf of its members, and Frontiers, the 2nd largest fully open access publisher in the UK.

This landmark deal provides a simplified and streamlined route to open access publishing for researchers in the UK, who publish 7% of the world’s research.

Jisc Collections and open access publisher Frontiers signed a national open access publishing agreement on 11 September 2019 . From left to right: Ronald Buitenhuis (Head of Publishing Solutions, Frontiers), Anna Vernon (Head of licensing, Jisc Collections), Ben Taplin (Licensing specialist, Jisc Collections), Frank Hellwig (Institutional Memberships Manager, Frontiers) © Frontiers

Fully aligned to open access mandates such as Plan S, the new framework agreement equips 180 UK research institutions in steering scholarly communication towards a new era where open access becomes easier. The deal includes a national discount on article processing charges (APCs), centralized, flexible invoicing, payment options, and dedicated support for library staff dealing with APCs.

Liam Earney, executive director for digital resources of Jisc Collections, said: “We are delighted to have reached this agreement with a pure gold publisher. This is another significant step forward in reaching the goal of full and immediate open access, helping UK institutions and researchers to make open access publishing in Frontiers journals as frictionless and as cost effective as possible.”  

Kamila Markram, co-founder and CEO of Frontiers, said: “This national deal shows the strong commitment from the UK to make publicly funded research openly available. This is our third national deal in Europe, following Austria and Sweden, and we hope other countries will follow in this visionary transition to Open Science.”

Related► Frontiers forms open access publishing agreement with the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)► Sweden commits to Open Science with new Open Access publishing deal

The agreement is effective from 1 December 2019 until November 2022. As part of the agreement, researchers affiliated with participating organizations will have full access to Frontiers’ Open Science tools, including collaborative peer-review, article and author impact metrics, and enhanced dissemination tools such as Loop.

All submitted articles will remain subject to Frontiers’ editorial processes, policies and conditions including rigorous peer review, and all accepted articles will be published under an open license (CC-BY) that allows authors (or their institutions) to retain copyright.

The research organizations also benefit from transparent and comprehensive reporting provided by Frontiers on expenditures as well as research output at the institutional and national level. The full agreement terms will be made public shortly on Jisc Licence subscriptions manager.

About JiscJisc’s vision is for the UK to be the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world. At its heart is the super-fast national research and education network, Janet, with built-in cyber security protection. Jisc also provides technology solutions for its members (colleges, universities and research centres) and customers (public sector bodies), helps members save time and money by negotiating sector-wide deals and provides advice and practical assistance on digital technology. Jisc is funded by the UK higher and further education and research funding bodies and member institutions.

For more information, contact: Faye Holst, senior media and content editor at Jisc (faye.holst@jisc.ac.uk, or call +44 (0)7443 983571).

About FrontiersFrontiers is an award-winning Open Science platform and leading Open Access scholarly publisher. Our mission is to make research results openly available to the world, thereby accelerating scientific and technological innovation, societal progress and economic growth. We empower scientists with innovative Open Science solutions that radically improve how science is published, evaluated and disseminated to researchers, innovators and the public. Access to research results and data is open, free and customized through Internet Technology, thereby enabling rapid solutions to the critical challenges we face as humanity.

For more information, contact: Ronald Buitenhuis, Head of Publishing Solutions, Frontiers (ronald.buitenhuis@frontiersin.org) or Frank Hellwig, Institutional Memberships Manager, Frontiers (frank.hellwig@frontiersin.org).