Read and Publish Agreements

Only some publishers offer R&P deals, and they decide which of their journals are included. The Library does not make this choice. Because Article Processing Charge (APC) waivers are bundled into journal subscription prices, fully Open Access journals (also known as Gold journals) are typically excluded from agreements because they have no paid subscriptions. In such cases, funding from CQU’s Open Access Journal Scheme (staff/affiliate login required), administered by the Research Division, may be an option. 

 If you have no funding options to publish Open Access through your chosen journal, you can still publish the traditional way and deposit your Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in Elements. The AAM version will then be legally made Open Access for the public to read via aCQUire. 

It is not uncommon for journals to have additional costs that are separate from the Open Access APC. This may include a submission fee, page and colour charges (for costs associated with the corresponding printed journal), and other administrative costs. These fees differ for each journal, even within the same publisher. They will be mentioned in the journal’s ‘Submission Guidelines’, and it is essential that authors read this prior to submission. Avoid submitting to a journal if you do not have the funds available to meet these other publication charges. The Library is unable to have these fees waived because they fall outside of the scope of R&P agreements.

R&P agreements are deals that the Library has established with publishers, providing APC journal waivers as part of a package with journal subscriptions. There is no dedicated fund for APCs, and no financial transaction occurs with each article acceptance. Instead, the R&P agreements combine the costs of accessing content via subscriptions (‘Read’) and publishing content via waived APCs (‘Publish’). These are bundled together and paid by the Library to the publisher. These arrangements are not unique to CQU and are common at most university libraries in Australia and New Zealand. 

Conversely, the Open Access Journal Scheme is a CQU-only initiative that provides dedicated funding for CQU authors to help pay a portion of their APC in a high-quality Open Access journal. This enables authors to publish in top-tier journals that may have been inaccessible otherwise. Eligibility requirements and application instructions are available on the Open Access Journal Scheme website. 

Some publishers will offer you alternate publishing options, which include “mirror” or “sister” journals that have similar-sounding journal titles, but are a fully Open Access alternative. Mirror or sister journals usually have the same editorial board and selection criteria as the journal they are replicating. The APC will only be waived if the alternate title is also covered by an R&P agreement listed on the CAUL Open Access Agreements > 2025 Title List. If you submit to the alternate journal and an R&P agreement does not cover it, you will need to check that you can source funding through the Open Access Journal Scheme or ensure other arrangements are in place to pay the APC.