JMIR Publications and University of California extend OA agreement
JMIR Publications and the University of California (UC) have extended their institutional membership agreement, reinforcing their “shared commitment to advancing open science”.
Managed through the California Digital Library (CDL), the renewed partnership will now run until 31 December 2026. The agreement continues a collaboration designed to support sustainable and equitable open access publishing across the UC system.
The extension maintains the multi-payer model that has underpinned the partnership since 2021. Under this approach, UC Libraries automatically cover the first $1,000 of the Article Processing Fee (APF) for accepted articles where the corresponding author is affiliated with a UC campus. Authors without access to research funding may also request full coverage of the remaining APF, ensuring that financial barriers do not prevent publication.
Since the agreement was first introduced, the model has supported the open access publication of more than 450 articles.
“The University of California is committed to making open access publishing sustainable and equitable for all UC researchers,” said Miranda Bennett, Director of Shared Collections at CDL. “By extending this multi-payer agreement, we continue to lower the barrier to open access publishing for all UC authors who publish with JMIR Publications, while providing critical full fee coverage for any author who lacks external grant funding. This ensures that financial constraints do not prevent our researchers from sharing their scholarship freely with the world.”
The renewed agreement also highlights the role of library-publisher partnerships in developing alternative funding approaches for open access. Multi-payer models, which distribute costs across institutions and authors, are increasingly being explored as a way to balance sustainability with inclusivity.
“We’re proud to continue JMIR’s relationship with the University of California,” said Dennis O’Brien, VP Communications and Partnerships at JMIR Publications. “This extension serves as a practical and successful example for collaboration between libraries and fully open access independent publishers, creating a sustainable model that benefits the entire academic community.”
The partners say the extension reflects ongoing efforts within the scholarly communications sector to refine funding mechanisms that support open access at scale, while addressing concerns around equity and affordability for researchers.