UMass Amherst Libraries, through its membership with the NERL Consortium of academic and research libraries, has signed a three-year agreement with the non-profit, open access publisher Public Library of Science (PLOS), providing UMass Amherst researchers with no or reduced fee publication of accepted manuscripts in 12 PLOS journals. Longstanding advocates of open scholarship, the Libraries celebrate this first agreement with a publisher that enables researchers to publish in premier STEM journals at no cost. Using innovative funding models, PLOS is at the forefront of making peer-reviewed research publications equitable and accessible for researchers and readers alike.
Effective October 1, 2021, UMass Amherst authors who have research accepted by PLOS Biology, PLOS Climate, PLOS Global Public Health, PLOS Medicine, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation or PLOS Water will publish with no fees. Authors of articles accepted by PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Digital Health, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS One, or PLOS Pathogens will be charged a flat $400 author transaction fee, greatly reduced from the usual $775 to $2,575 fee.
Under the terms of this agreement, UMass Amherst Libraries will join a community of academic libraries, including California Digital Library, Johns Hopkins University, MIT, Ohio State University and the University of Arkansas, who fund PLOS publications through direct payments to the publisher. These payments cover journal costs in part or in full, and different fee structures are designed to achieve global equity of participation in scholarly communication.
Click here to read the original press release.
