Read and Publish agreements for Monash researchers

Publish your research open access without paying hefty fees to the publisher.

Read and Publish (R&P) agreements are partnerships between libraries and journal publishers that support open scholarly publishing. They allow eligible authors to publish their research open access in selected journals without paying article processing charges (APCs).

For Monash corresponding authors, this means significant cost savings, as the Library funds open publication through its collection subscription fees.

If you plan to publish under an R&P agreement, be sure to read How to take advantage of these agreements at the end of this page.

Current publishing agreements

CAUL-negotiated publishing agreements (no author-incurred APCs)

The following agreements are negotiated nationally through the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL). A full list of over 13,000 journal titles is available, and will be updated as more agreements are put in place.

Check the publisher agreement details and title lists to determine if specific journals are included, as some journals may not be covered in the agreement.

Library-negotiated publishing agreements (no author-incurred APCs)

Status: Active from 1 January 2025 until further notice
Coverage: Publish in six ASM primary research journals without any article processing charges
License options: CC BY (Authors to review additional options if available)
How to use the agreement: The responsible corresponding author must use their current Monash University affiliation and email address (@monash.edu or @student.monash.edu) for the accepted paper to be eligible. Please do not use a personal email address; doing so may result in an ineligible submission or a delay in approval. Follow the publisher or journal's usual article submission process via the journal homepage. On acceptance of the article, the publisher will ask the corresponding author to complete a publishing agreement, and the APC is automatically waived for authors from participating institutions who have used their institutional email (@monash.edu/@student.monash.edu) AND selected Monash University as their participating institutional affiliation.
More information: American Society for Microbiology Subscribe to Open
Status: From 2020 onward until further notice
Coverage: Unlimited OA publication without any article charges
Licence options: CC BY (Author to review any new options from publisher)
How to use this agreement: The responsible corresponding author must use their current Monash University affiliation and email address (@monash.edu or @student.monash.edu) in the accepted paper to be recognised as eligible. Note the “responsible corresponding author” is the author who manages the manuscript and correspondence during the publication process, from submission through publication. This cannot be changed after submission. Upon article acceptance, when invited into the Author Services platform, confirm your eligibility for OA publishing by providing your Monash University affiliation. Once your eligibility has been recognised, confirm which OA licence you wish to use (e.g. CC BY).
More information: Annual Reviews Subscribe to Open
Status: Active from 1 October 2025
Coverage: Uncapped number of article APC waivers to all Bentham Science Publishers hybrid and gold open access journals.
- Journals by Title: https://www.benthamscience.com/bypublication
- Journals by Subject Area: https://www.benthamscience.com/browse_by_subject
Restrictions: None
License options: Authors to review options
How to use the agreement: The responsible corresponding author must use their current Monash University affiliation and email address (@monash.edu or @student.monash.edu) for the accepted paper to be eligible. Please do not use a personal email address; doing so may result in an ineligible submission or a delay in approval. Follow the publisher or journal's usual article submission process via the journal homepage. On acceptance of the article, the publisher will ask the corresponding author to complete a publishing agreement, and the APC is automatically waived for authors from participating institutions who have used their institutional email (@monash.edu/@student.monash.edu) AND selected Monash University as their participating institutional affiliation.
More information: Bentham Science has a collaboration with ScienceDirect, Elsevier. All open access articles published in the Bentham journals are available on ScienceDirect as well as the journals’ websites.
Status: Active from 1 January 2023 (applicable to articles accepted from this date).
Coverage: Uncapped APCs for these five journals only:
- Genes & Development
- Genome Research
- RNA
- Learning & Memory
- Molecular Case Studies (OA publication)
Restrictions: This agreement covers the five journals listed above.
Licence options: CC BY
How to use the agreement: The responsible corresponding author must use their current Monash University affiliation and email address (@monash.edu or @student.monash.edu) in the accepted paper to be recognised as eligible. Note the “responsible corresponding author” is the author who manages the manuscript and correspondence during the publication process, from submission through publication. This cannot be changed after submission. Upon article acceptance, when invited into the Author Services platform, confirm your eligibility for OA publishing by providing your Monash University affiliation. Once your eligibility has been recognised, confirm which OA licence you wish to use (e.g. CC BY).
More information: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Transformative Agreements

Publishing discounts (author-incurred charges apply)

Some publishers offer discounted article processing charges to Monash researchers.

Discount: USD250.00
Status: Active from 1 June 2022 (applicable to articles accepted from this date)
Coverage: Open access publishing in hybrid journals only.
Summary: Monash University's subscription to American Chemical Society journal package (ACS All Pubs) entitles our authors with a current Monash email (@monash.edu or @student.monash.edu) to discounted APCs in hybrid journals. Individual members of the ACS are entitled to a further discount under the ACS Author Rewards program.
More information: Open access pricing
Discount: 15% off APCs
Status: Active from 1 January 2024
Coverage: Discount applies to BioMed Central journals
More information: BioMed Central Open Access
Discount: 25% off APCs for all BMJ journals (hybrid and gold included)
Status: Active for article submissions from 1 January 2026
More information: Open access at BMJ
Discount: 20%
Status: Active from 1 January 2022 (applicable to articles accepted from this date)
Coverage: Eligible fully open access journals.
Summary: Monash University's Read and Publish agreement with De Gruyter waives APCs for a select number of hybrid journals only (see above). However, corresponding authors can receive a 20% APC discount for publishing in eligible De Gruyter fully open access (gold) journals. Corresponding authors must use their current Monash University email address (@monash.edu or @student.monash.edu) to be eligible for this discount.
Other journals published on degruyter.com (such as hybrid journals published by third parties, or journals published under alternative OA models) are not considered eligible under any read-and-publish agreement.
More information: Submission process
Discount: 15%
Status: Active from 1 January 2023 (for articles accepted from this date)
Summary: Gold open access titles may benefit from a 15% discount on article processing charges.
Eligibility: Corresponding authors using a current Monash University email (@monash.edu or @student.monash.edu) are eligible.
More information:
- Elsevier APC price list
- CAUL Read and Publish Guide
Discount: 15%
Status: Active
Coverage: All ICE Publishing journals
Summary: Corresponding authors affiliated with Monash University are eligible for a 15% discount on APCs in ICE Publishing journals. The discount is automatically applied to the APCs upon acceptance of an article where the corresponding author uses their current Monash University (@monash.edu or @student.monash.edu) email domain.
More information: Open access at ICE Publishing
Discounts:
- 10% discount on Article Processing Charges (APCs) for all MDPI Journals,
- 10% discount on Book Processing Charges (BPCs) for MDPI Books,
- 15% discount on Language Editing Services.
Eligibility: In order to receive a 10% discount, you must use your Monash University email (@monash.edu or @student.monash.edu); however, you do not need to be a corresponding author, you just need to be an author on the paper and use your Monash email.
Status: Active from 15 September 2025
Further information: MDPI information for authors
Discount: 15% off hybrid-only RSC
Status: Active from 1 January 2022 (for articles accepted from this date)
Coverage: Hybrid-only RSC Journals (excludes fully open access (gold) journals)
Summary: As a CAUL member, Monash University's agreement with The Royal Society of Chemistry, RSC Gold 2017, offers Monash University corresponding authors a 15% discount on APCs for all of their journals. The discount is automatically applied to the APC upon acceptance of an article where the corresponding author uses their current Monash University email address (@monash.edu or @student.monash.edu).
More information: Royal Society of Chemistry – Gold open access
Discount: 20%
Status: Active from 1 January 2023 (applicable to articles accepted from this date)
Coverage: SAGE Publishing’s Fully (Gold) Open Access journals
Summary: Titles not included in the agreement for open access publishing may still benefit from a 20% discount on open access article processing charges (APCs). Please check the full title list to see which journals offer a discount
Further information: See the SAGE-CAUL Agreement page for more information and to download up-to-date lists of journals offering free or discounted open access publishing.
Discount: 20% discount on gold APCs after the open access publishing cap has been reached.
Status: Active from 1 January 2026 (applicable to articles accepted from this date).
The gold OA cap will reset on 1 January 2027 and when authors will be able to publish without charge again (until the cap is reached).
Coverage:
This is an uncapped hybrid and capped gold agreement.
While there is no limit on the number of articles that can be published OA in hybrid journals, there is an article cap on gold OA journals. When this gold OA cap is reached, a 20% discount on APCs will apply.
The cap is expected to be reached by November 2026.
Summary:
To be covered, eligible articles must have been accepted for publication and authors must have completed their author agreements before the cap is reached, otherwise authors will receive a 20% discount, but will have to cover the rest of the APC. The Library does not have funds available to cover APCs or other publishing fees if they arise.
If you are submitting to a capped open access journal, ensure you have access to funds to pay any publishing fees.
More information:
- Wiley CAUL agreement page
- Wiley Open Access Accounts by Country or Location

How to take advantage of these agreements

You need to be the corresponding author to take advantage of these agreements.
- If you are a co-author, make ensure the corresponding author is from an institution which has similar agreements in place.
Read the relevant publisher agreement to check for:
- any restrictions, eligibility criteria, or caps that may apply
- whether APCs are covered by the agreement
- any excluded article types, such as editorials, news articles, and obituaries.
Use your Monash email address (@monash.edu or @student.monash.edu) when submitting your work to participating publishers.
- Learn why using an institutional email address matters when publishing open access.
Write Monash University as your primary institutional affiliation.

On acceptance, the publisher will confirm details of the R&P agreement.

Get help

For more information or help, email the library at librarians@monash.edu or book a consultation with a librarian.