Open Publishing agreement signed between the Microbiology Society and the Big Ten Academic Alliance Consortium

30 January 2023

The Microbiology Society and the Big Ten Academic Alliance are pleased to announce a three year open publishing agreement from 2023.

The Publish and Read model will allow affiliated researchers at 15 universities to publish an unlimited number of Open Access (OA) articles in hybrid and fully OA titles, as well as having full read access to the Society’s journals portfolio. This agreement has been made possible by Accucoms. 

“The libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance are close partners with the researchers, faculty, and authors of our universities to advance open, more equitable scholarship,” said Maurice York, Director of Library Initiatives for the Big Ten Academic Alliance. “Open Publishing agreements such as this are a key part of our strategy for moving toward that ideal. We’re very excited to reach this agreement and add the Microbiology Society journals to our Open portfolio.”

Peter Cotgreave, Chief Executive of the Microbiology Society said:

“We are very pleased to announce this agreement with the Big Ten Academic Alliance in the United States – it demonstrates the reach of the Society’s model for sustainable Open Access and its relevance internationally to academic institutions, facilitating Open Access for more researchers across the globe.” 

“Accucoms are thrilled to have brokered an agreement between BTAA and Microbiology Society leading the charge towards Open Access. This Publish & Read agreement not only gives institutions, but also authors maximum value, by providing unlimited submissions and removing transactional barriers.” Kimberly Blizzard, Commercial Manager – North America, Accucoms.

The number of international institutions opting into Publish and Read agreements with the Microbiology Society is set to double year-on-year since its launch in 2020. 

Affiliated authors with Publish and Read Institutions are entitled to: 

• Unlimited OA publishing: any article published in Society journals where the corresponding author is from a Publish and Read institution will be OA by default. 

• Unlimited usage: any user associated with a Publish and Read institution can access the entire archive of Society content, back to 1947, for reading and for text and data mining. 

Authors can check if their institution is eligible on the Microbiology Society journals website.

Publish and Read is available across the Society’s six journals, including hybrid titles Journal of General Virology, Journal of Medical Microbiology, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, and fully OA titles Access Microbiology, Microbial Genomics and Microbiology.

Microbiology Society
The Microbiology Society is a membership charity for scientists interested in microbes, their effects and their practical uses. It is one of the largest microbiology societies in Europe with a worldwide membership based in universities, industry, hospitals, research institutes and schools. 

Our principal goal is to develop, expand and strengthen the networks available to our members so that they can generate new knowledge about microbes and ensure that it is shared with other communities. The impacts from this will drive us towards a world in which the science of microbiology provides maximum benefit to society. 

Contact: Valida Delalic, Retentions and Renewals Manager – [email protected]
Website: www.microbiologyresearch.org/ 

Big Ten Academic Alliance
The Big Ten Academic Alliance is the nation’s preeminent model for effective collaboration among research universities. For more than half a century, these world-class institutions have advanced their academic missions, generated unique opportunities for students and faculty, and served the common good by sharing expertise, leveraging campus resources, and collaborating on innovative programs. Governed and funded by the provosts of the member universities, Big Ten Academic Alliance mandates are coordinated by a staff from its Champaign, Illinois headquarters. The fifteen world-class libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance members include Indiana University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the University of Chicago.

Contact: Maurice York, Director of Library Initiatives – [email protected] 
Website: www.btaa.org

Accucoms
Contact: Kimberly Blizzard, Commercial Manager – [email protected]
Website: www.accucoms.com/