What is OhioLINK?
OhioLINK, part of the Ohio Department of Higher Education, is Ohio’s academic library consortium. Easy, fast access to a vast amount of scholarly material has made Ohio’s higher ed library system the envy of academics across the country and OhioLINK one of the most respected library consortia.
If you are looking for an article or book, chances are that you can get it through OhioLINK. OhioLINK cost-effectively acquires and maintains shared electronic library resources for its members--more than 37 million digital journal articles, more than 241,000 electronic books, and more than 100 databases. It also funds and manages Ohio’s inter-library loan program from a shared catalog of 38 million books and printed items.
In 2022, OhioLINK negotiated three transformative agreements with Wiley, Cambridge University Press, and the Institute of Physics publishers that allow authors to publish open access at no cost to the authors or additional cost to their institutions. These agreements also expanded access for Ohio researchers to read articles in journals from these publishers. OhioLINK has created similar information pages for authors interested in publishing in Wiley journals and Cambridge journals.
Your institution’s library would be happy to provide more information about what is available to you.
What is the Cambridge University Press Read & Publish Deal?
OhioLINK is embarking upon an agreement with Cambridge University Press with two major benefits for students and faculty at institutions of higher education in Ohio. This deal provides expanded access to important published research from Cambridge University Press and was the first such “Read & Publish” deal with an open access publishing component for OhioLINK.
Starting January 1, 2022, students, faculty, and staff at most OhioLINK member institutions will have access to current articles published in all 400+ journals published by Cambridge University Press. An important new component of this agreement is the ability for authors at OhioLINK member institutions to publish open access (OA) journal articles at Cambridge University Press-published journals at no additional charge to either the author or the institution.
What is open access publishing?
Open access (OA) is a way to publish that makes content freely available to read with no subscription or access fees, as well as licensing the work to allow for reuse. OhioLINK's Read & Publish deal with Cambridge applies to articles published as "Gold open access," in either fully open access journals or hybrid open access journals.
Gold open access refers to articles that are published as open access when the author pays an article publishing charge (APC). This APC allows the journal to make the article openly available without any subscription or fee to read. These articles may be published in either a fully gold open access journal (in which all articles are open access, so there is never a subscription fee for the journal) or a hybrid journal (in which authors have the option to publish as open access, so that the journal has some open access articles and some subscription access articles).
For more information about open access:
- Cambridge University Press' online open access information (website)
- Guide to Open Access at Cambridge's site (downloadable PDF)
Who is eligible to publish open access?
In order to be eligible to publish open access at no cost in a Cambridge journal under this deal, the corresponding author of the article (see below for definition) must be affiliated with an institution that subscribes to OhioLINK’s Electronic Journal Center (EJC), a full text searchable database of electronic journal articles from top scholarly publishers. There is no limit on the number times an author can request open access funding under this agreement.
To find out if your institution participates, please contact your institution’s library or see the list of participating institutions on Cambridge's webpage about the OhioLINK agreement.
What is a corresponding author? How is their affiliation identified?
Cambridge explains it this way: when submitting a paper, you will be asked to assign a Corresponding Author. The Corresponding Author is the person who handles the manuscript and correspondence during the publication process, including approving the article proofs. In addition, the Corresponding Author also acts as the point of contact for any inquiries (including those relating to the integrity of the work) after the paper is published.
Corresponding authors identify their institutional affiliation at the time of submitting their article. Cambridge also uses institution email domains to confirm affiliations for their Read & Publish deals. You can find more information on corresponding authors and their roles and responsibilities when publishing an article with Cambridge here.
When can I publish open access articles in Cambridge journals?
Access to the publishing benefits begins on January 1, 2022 and continues through December 31, 2024. This means that to publish an article as open access without paying any Article Publication Charge (APC), the article to be published must be accepted for publication after January 1, 2022 and on or before December 31, 2024.
What kind of articles are eligible for open access publishing under this deal?
OhioLINK's deal with Cambridge University Press allows for OA journal articles to be published in any of its fully open access or hybrid open access journals.
Eligible article types include:
- research articles
- review articles
- rapid communications
- brief reports, and
- case reports
Ineligible article types include:
- book reviews
- discussions
- editorials
- introductions
- letters
- meeting reports
- proceedings, and
- book chapters
Cambridge has more information and definitions of each article type on their website.
How does an author choose to publish an article as open access?
Most journals published by Cambridge University Press offer the option to publish an article as open access.
When a corresponding author's article has been approved for publication in a Cambridge journal that offers an open access publishing option, they are offered the option to publish their article as open access. Cambridge offers an Open Access funding lookup tool for authors. There is also a webpage on Cambridge’s website with information for authors about how to take advantage of open access publishing under this OhioLINK agreement.
In addition, Cambridge reaches out directly to eligible authors who did not select to publish open access, offering to convert their article to open access within a year of its publication.
What information and training are available for faculty and authors?
Cambridge offers several resources for authors interested in publishing their articles open access, including ongoing webinars, web pages for each deal, and additional resources on their web site:
- See participating institutions, current title list, and more on Cambridge's Read & Publish agreement with OhioLINK webpage.
- Identify author eligibility using Cambridge's Open Access Waivers & Discounts page. Enter United States and then your institution's name to view eligibility details, including title lists.
- For information about how publishing open access works for authors, view a recorded webinar about author workflow at Cambridge's site.
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For questions about open access publishing with Cambridge, librarians and authors can contact oaqueries@cambridge.org
OhioLINK has also created resources for this and its other open access agreements:
- OhioLINK Open Access Agreements Summary Table. This one-page PDF addresses basic questions about the open access publishing options available through OhioLINK.
Where can I go with questions?
- Your library is the best resource to answer questions about resources available to you.
- Find your library's contact information here.
- Some libraries also have specific contacts for open access questions. You can find contact emails for each institution at the bottom of Cambridge's information page for the OhioLINK deal, under "Need help?".
- Cambridge University Press also can help with questions about how publishing open access with them works: oaqueries@cambridge.org
- For more information about open access publishing opportunities available through OhioLINK, see OhioLINK's web pages about open access publishing with IOP and Wiley.
Updated February 1, 2024