Ohio higher education faculty and researchers now have more opportunities than ever to reach readers and increase their citations by publishing open access. Through OhioLINK’s six open access publishing agreements, authors can publish in more than 5,000 academic journals at no cost. These OhioLINK agreements remove financial barriers for authors, which is especially important for those without grant funding or departmental support.
Publishing open access not only broadens the availability of research articles, but has been shown to increase visibility and citations, key considerations in tenure and promotion reviews. In a study completed in consultation with Clarivate in 2025, articles published by OhioLINK authors as open access had 50% more citation impact than articles published behind a paywall.
For its newest cost-neutral transformative agreement, OhioLINK, Ohio’s academic library consortium, has entered into a 3-year contract with the American Chemical Society (ACS). OhioLINK’s other agreements with Wiley, Springer, Elsevier, Cambridge University Press, and Institute of Physics have helped authors at 50 OhioLINK member institutions publish over 7,000 articles and avoid more than $26 million in article publishing charges (APCs) since 2022.
To help faculty and researchers take advantage of these important opportunities, OhioLINK and campus librarians provide information and consultation to authors about their publishing options. Member-affiliated authors are embracing the consortium’s open access publishing options, and uptake has increased quickly as each new agreement has been added. An OhioLINK survey of authors indicated that 97% would take advantage of the OhioLINK agreements to publish open access again.
Faculty and researchers with questions about open access publishing options can consult OhioLINK’s online information or contact their local scholarly communications librarians or library for additional support.
About OhioLINK: OhioLINK is Ohio’s academic library consortium, serving 87 academic institutions and the State Library of Ohio. OhioLINK was established in 1992 to improve the return on state investment in higher education by lowering costs, increasing efficiencies, and providing the widest access to scholarly materials across Ohio. OhioLINK pools funding and manages the collaboration of expert teams to provide cost sharing, member guidance, and technological expertise for electronic management and access to resources. OhioLINK is a member of the Ohio Technology Consortium, which is part of the Ohio Department of Higher Education. For more information, visit ohiolink.edu.
