Transformative Agreements: Do They Pave the Way to Open Access? | Ángel Borrego , Lluís Anglada and Ernest Abadal | Learned Publishing, 12 November 2020 | Open Research Community

Abstract: Transformative agreements, also known as ‘offsetting’,‘read and publish’,or‘publish and read’agreements, have shifted the focus of scholarly journallicensing from cost containment towards open access publication. An analysisof 36 full-text transformative agreements recorded in the ESAC registryshows that‘transformative agreement’is an umbrella term that encompassesdifferent kinds of contracts. We differentiate between pre-transformative,partially transformative, and fullytransformative agreements. Pre-transformative agreements are traditionalsubscription licences that grant arti-cle processing charge (APC) discounts or vouchers for open access publica-tion of a limited number of articles. Partially transformative agreementsdifferentiate between a read fee and a publish fee to cover the processingcharges of a certain number of articles. Fully transformative agreements allowunlimited open access publication of the scholarly output of the subscribinginstitution. In all three categories, some agreements restrict open access pub-lication to hybrid journals, whereas others allow publication in both hybridand gold journals. Transformative agreements are more transparent than tra-ditional journal licences, allow authors to retain copyright, and make provi-sions to facilitate the management of open access workflows. It is hard toassess whether these agreements are just a temporary phase in the transitiontowards open access or will perpetuate the current structure of the scholarlycommunication system and its associated high costs.