The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has announced an innovative multi-year Subscribe to Open (S2O) agreement with the University of California (UC) system. Starting in 2025, this partnership will transition ASM’s six primary research journals to an S2O model, marking a significant step toward advancing open access (OA) in microbial sciences.
The S2O model, introduced by ASM in 2023, is designed to improve global access to research, encourage collaboration, and accelerate scientific progress. Through this agreement, UC-affiliated authors will benefit from unlimited opportunities to publish open access articles in ASM’s six flagship journals without incurring article processing charges (APCs).
The participating UC institutions include: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).
Under the S2O model, ASM’s subscription-based content will transition to open access annually if a minimum sustainability target is met through subscriber support. If the target is not achieved, the content will remain accessible only to subscribers. UC Libraries will also receive ASM’s Open Access Guarantee, ensuring that affiliated authors can publish OA articles regardless of whether ASM meets its funding goals.
Additional benefits for UC Libraries include No APCs for ASM’s six S2O journals, unlimited OA publishing without caps, and compliance with funder policies such as the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum.
ASM’s six primary research journals transitioning to the S2O model are: Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy®; Applied and Environmental Microbiology®; Infection and Immunity®; Journal of Bacteriology®; Journal of Clinical Microbiology®; and Journal of Virology®
Through this partnership, ASM and UC are setting a new benchmark in open access publishing, paving the way for a more inclusive and accessible future in scientific research.
Click here to read the original press release.
