CSHL Menu

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Begins 2021 with New and Expanded Transformative Publishing Agreements

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Open access publication and access to renowned content highlight new licensing arrangements with institutions in three countries.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, a nonprofit publisher of leading research journals in molecular biology, genetics, and related fields, is pleased to announce its first set of transformational publishing agreements, effective from January 1, 2021.

“A sustainable path to open publication of biomedical research is a long-sought objective at Cold Spring Harbor,” said Dr. John Inglis, Publisher of CSHL Press and co-founder of bioRxiv. “Our transformational offerings provide a model for any research-intensive institution whose scientists wish to make their articles openly available in these long-established, prestigious, not-for-profit journals.”

These agreements aim to transform the business model for CSHL Press journals by expanding access for researchers, reducing the reliance on subscription fees, and encouraging a much greater uptake of Open Access publishing by authors.

The new deals are now in place with Jisc, which supports higher education and research institutions in the United Kingdom through digital resources and collective licensing negotiations; IReL, the national consortium of Irish libraries; and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), a leading research institution in Saudi Arabia.

Agreements have been customized for specific needs, with some unique features for each: Jisc members may join the agreement on an opt-in basis; IReL members all participate in the “read” portion of the license for selected CSHL Press journals; and the KAUST agreement applies to a single institution. All customizations, however, maintain the shared primary publishing goal:  Any paper accepted for publication from a corresponding author at a participating institution may be published Open Access.

J.K. Vijayakumar, Library Director at KAUST said, “KAUST is proud to be a pioneer of open access and to be aligned with global initiatives. Through efforts like this read and publish agreement with CSHL Press, we are helping shape a sustainable, responsible approach to ensuring that our research on world-leading scientific journals is available to all.”

“IReL is delighted to sign an agreement with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,” says Jack Hyland, IReL Manager. “It retains read access to key CSHL Press journals and waives article processing charges for our corresponding authors in these journals.”

“Jisc members have shown strong interest in our transitional agreement announced in October 2020,” said Helen Dobson, Licensing Portfolio Specialist for Research at Jisc. “We are pleased that CSHL Press has agreed to extend the opt-in deadline to accommodate institutions wishing to join the agreement during the early 2022 renewal period. Jisc institutions can view their offers via https://subscriptionsmanager.jisc.ac.uk/.“

CSHL Press is actively discussing additional transformational agreements. Institutions and organizations interested in exploring transformational agreements are also encouraged to contact CSHL Press directly. For further information, please visit www.cshl.edu/cold-spring-harbor-laboratory-press/transformational-agreements/. If you are a current library subscriber interested in discussing a transformational arrangement, please contact Doug LaFrenier at dlafrenier@cshjournals.org.

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

Rooted in an initiative to publish an annual Symposium on Quantitative Biology in 1933, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press is a division of the Laboratory that publishes nine journals, more than 200 books in print and electronic form, and a variety of online initiatives. Its publications assist and inform scientists, graduate and undergraduate students, and the general public and provide financial support for the Laboratory’s commitment to the advance and spread of scientific knowledge. For more information, visit www.cshl.edu/cold-spring-harbor-laboratory-press/

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Established in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, headquartered in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, is a private, nonprofit basic research and educational institution, with some 330 scientists who conduct groundbreaking research in cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, and bioinformatics. The Laboratory is one of eight National Cancer Institute–designated basic research centers in the United States. It is recognized internationally for its educational activities, which include scientific meetings and courses that attract more than 8000 scientists to the campus each year as well as the preprint servers bioRxiv and medRxiv. Its graduate school of Biological Sciences offers an innovative Ph.D. program. In addition, the Laboratory trains college undergraduates through the Undergraduate Research Program, high-school students through the Partners for the Future Program, and grade-school children through its Nature Study Program summer camp. The Laboratory also operates the Dolan DNA Learning Center, which offers laboratory workshops to science teachers and students. Other components of the Laboratory include Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, the Banbury Conference Center, and the Cancer Genome Research Center. For more information, visit www.cshl.edu