JMIR Publications and Sweden’s National Library extend partnership
Open-access digital health research publisher JMIR Publications and the National Library of Sweden (NLS), representing the Bibsam Consortium, have announced the extension of their Flat-Fee Unlimited Open Access Publishing Agreement through 2026.
The parties says the renewal of this agreement, originally set to expire on December 31, 2025, reinforces the commitment of Swedish research funders and institutions to the principles of open science. The partnership provides authors affiliated with Bibsam member institutions with the means and opportunity to publish their articles open access in JMIR’s journals without paying individual Article Processing Charges (APCs).
“The success of the Bibsam-JMIR agreement proves that the path to Open Access doesn’t have to be administratively complex,” said Dennis O’Brien, VP of Communications and Partnerships at JMIR. “By replacing the friction of individual APC invoicing with a transparent, streamlined flat-fee model, we’ve significantly reduced the workload for both librarians and researchers. This renewal is about more than just publishing – it’s about providing a frictionless, sustainable alternative to the administrative weight of traditional transformative agreements.”
JMIR says the success of the partnership is demonstrated by the 40% increase in annual publishing by Swedish authors from 2023 to 2025. More than 130 digital health articles have been published without author payment since the beginning of the agreement in June 2024.
“Our initial agreement with JMIR Publications has been a success and we are pleased to renew it for another year,” said Erik Stattin, Manager of the Research Collaboration Unit at the National Library of Sweden. “Partnerships with Gold Open Access publishers like JMIR are important steps on Sweden’s path beyond Transformative Agreements towards a fully open access publishing system that encourages researcher equity and academic freedom.”
This renewed agreement facilitates a simpler publishing process for corresponding authors affiliated with the participating institutions, allowing them to publish their research findings immediately upon publication under the CC-By license without any embargo period.