Thieme and the Dutch Library Consortium UKB have concluded a Read-and-Publish agreement, with the Dutch cooperative association for educational and research institutions SURF serving as an intermediary party. The agreement includes eleven leading Dutch universities and provides members of the participating institutions with unlimited read access to a total of 55 Thieme journals.
In addition, associated scientists and authors may submit an unlimited number of Open Access scientific articles with no additional article processing charge (APC) and under a CC-BY license. The publication component of the agreement covers 34 (English language) hybrid subscription journals as well as all of Thieme’s Gold Open Access journals. The recently concluded agreement is an expression of the partners’ shared aims of promoting Open Access and the unimpeded diffusion of knowledge in a strategic manner.
The goal of Open Access is to make scientific discoveries freely available. Until now, readers paid for the latest technical literature under a subscription model. With Open Access, it is authors themselves – or the institutions that employ or fund them – who pay to publish research on suitable platforms. In the past two to three years, the global scientific publishing community has moved toward an Open Access approach. Dutch universities have been strong advocates of this forward-looking publishing model (1), which also enjoys political support: the government of the Netherlands has set the goal of publishing 100% of the country’s research under an Open Access model by 2024.
In addition to read access to a total of 55 Thieme journals, the agreement also includes access to the archives from the year 2000. The agreement, which runs until the end of 2024, also includes unlimited Open Access publications in all of Thieme’s Gold Open Access journals as well as in 34 hybrid subscription journals, in which a portion of articles are Open Access. The services of the Thieme Group are just as extensive in Open Access publications as in traditional magazine articles. Thieme gladly offers a high-standard peer review by internationally leading experts as well as professional editing for Open Access articles.
