Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries and Cambridge University Press have established a new pilot program that expands Vanderbilt’s Evidence‑Based Acquisitions (EBA) ebook agreement to include open access book publishing opportunities for Vanderbilt authors.
Cambridge’s EBA provides institutional access to its ebook collection and allows libraries to select titles for permanent ownership. Under the expanded agreement, Vanderbilt will continue to access more than 50,000 ebooks across the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The new component, one of the first of its kind in North America, introduces open access publishing options for Vanderbilt authors. Monographs and Cambridge Elements authored by Vanderbilt corresponding authors can be published open access without book processing charges.
Jon Shaw, dean of libraries and Connie Vinita Dowell University Librarian at Vanderbilt, explained that removing publishing fees offers researchers a pathway to make their work freely available worldwide. He noted that the collaboration reflects Vanderbilt Libraries’ commitment to expanding access to scholarly resources while supporting sustainable publishing models.
Jack Macdonald, library sales director at Cambridge University Press, stated that the agreement demonstrates Cambridge’s ongoing work with library partners to develop financially sustainable approaches to open access book publishing. He emphasized that both institutions recognize the importance of increasing access to knowledge and enabling broader use of scholarly work.
The first Vanderbilt author to benefit from the agreement is Lynn Ramey, professor of French and of cinema and media arts. Her forthcoming book, The Immersive Global Middle Ages, will be published by Cambridge in October 2026. Ramey observed that open access would make the book available to a wider audience and increase its impact, adding that the agreement provided crucial support since publishing open access independently would have been financially challenging.
The pilot program complements Vanderbilt’s existing open access journal publishing agreement with Cambridge, established in 2021. That agreement allows Vanderbilt corresponding authors to publish open access in hundreds of Cambridge journals without article processing charges, while also providing access to current journal content. Together, the book and journal agreements extend Vanderbilt’s partnership with Cambridge across multiple publishing formats and reduce financial barriers to open access.
Cambridge University Press continues to expand its open access portfolio. By 2026, three‑quarters of its published research articles and more than half of its journals were open access. The press has also established over 2,000 open access publishing agreements with university libraries and consortia worldwide to cover costs for affiliated authors.
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