The Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL) has announced an in-principle open access agreement with global publisher Taylor & Francis, marking a major step toward fairer and more sustainable access to research for universities in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
The in-principle agreement has been negotiated under a new sector-wide approach involving CAUL, Universities Australia, and Universities New Zealand – Te Pōkai Tara. From 1 January 2026, it will provide comprehensive open access publishing for authors at participating universities in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand without individual article processing charges. The arrangement covers all hybrid and gold journals in the Taylor & Francis portfolio.
Under the agreement, all Australian and New Zealand university research published by Taylor & Francis will be freely accessible to members of the public. Making academic research openly available is intended to support efforts to address the spread of misinformation and disinformation.
CAUL has characterized the in-principle agreement with Taylor & Francis as a major advance in the transition to open access for Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Providing comprehensive publishing opportunities across the full range of Taylor & Francis journals, regardless of type, will simplify options for authors.
The agreement with Taylor & Francis is the first to be concluded under CAUL’s new negotiation framework, which has been established in response to mounting pressure on university budgets and rising concern about the increasing cost of open access publishing.
CAUL notes that the growing costs of both library subscriptions and open access publishing have become unaffordable for universities. CAUL has also reported that it is continuing to negotiate new agreements with Wiley and Springer Nature and remains confident about achieving positive outcomes with both publishers.
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