Milner Library at Illinois State University launched its Open Access Publishing Support program in 2022, enabling faculty and student authors to publish their work open access at no personal cost in select journals through library-negotiated agreements. Since its introduction, the program has supported more than 295 open access publications.
Open access publishing typically requires authors to pay fees ranging from $2,000 to $4,000 per article to offset subscription revenue. Milner Library’s Read and Publish agreements combine subscription access with publishing fees, removing direct costs for authors.
As the 2026–27 academic year begins, the library reported that the program has saved Illinois State authors more than $1 million while expanding the reach of their research. Open access publishing increases visibility by making scholarship freely available online, and studies indicate that such articles receive more diverse citations, foster interdisciplinary connections, and are cited more frequently than paywalled work.
Milner Library currently maintains 12 Read and Publish agreements with publishers including ACM, ACS, Cambridge University Press, Company of Biologists, Elsevier, IOP, Microbiology Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, Sage Publications, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley. More than 630 Illinois State authors, including students, have published under these agreements.
Although the agreements do not cover entire publisher portfolios, Illinois State authors can identify eligible journals using the library’s Open Journal Finder tool. Additional information about open access and publishing support is available through the Scholarly Communication Team at ISUReD@IllinoisState.edu.
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