University of California Libraries and JMIR Publications Renew Multi-Payer Open Access Agreement

Newswise — (Toronto/Philadelphia, April 11, 2022) JMIR Publications has announced the renewal of our multi-payer agreement with the University of California (UC) for an additional year. Renewal of the agreement continues UC’s funding support for its affiliated authors who choose to publish in JMIR’s unique portfolio of journals, which focus on digital health and public health, and include a new generation of overlay journals (JMIRx). 

The pilot agreement was originally signed in 2020 and was the first multi-payer deal completed by UC with a fully open access publisher. According to the agreement, the 10 UC campus libraries contribute the first USD $1000 of any JMIR article processing charge (APC) for eligible authors. Protocols can be published free of charge for the authors. Authors are asked to pay the remainder of the APC from their research funds, if available. 

This cost-sharing model is designed to enable the UC libraries to stretch their available funds to support as many authors as possible. If an author does not have research funds to cover the balance, the UC libraries will pay the entire APC on their behalf, ensuring that lack of research funds does not present a barrier for UC authors who wish to publish in JMIR’s open access journals. Under the renewed deal, UC authors will continue to benefit through December 31, 2022.

Gunther Eysenbach, CEO of JMIR Publications, says:

“We are thrilled to continue our work with the University of California who have been invaluable partners in developing their first multi-payer deal with a fully open access publisher, and for their ongoing support of our novel efforts to enhance the speed and veracity of scholarly communications. I commend the University of California to support open access publishers at the same level as legacy publishers. The UC multi-payer model is also compatible with our broader vision on scholarly communication and publishing in the era of preprint servers, which we call Plan P.” 

Given the success of the first two years of the pilot program, the next phase of this program is already in discussion. As mentioned above, publication fees for research protocols/methodologies are fully covered by the UC libraries and we are looking to improve their rigor and impact through the Plan P framework.

We are very excited by the early promise of this project, which offers unlimited peer review of preprints published by authors of enrolled institutions. We look forward to continuing our conversations with the University of California and all of our partners in developing a program that serves the research community’s needs.

About JMIR Publications:

JMIR Publications is a leading, born-digital, open access publisher of 30+ academic journals and other innovative scientific communication products that focus on the intersection of health and technology. Its flagship journal, the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is the leading digital health journal globally in content breadth and visibility, and is the largest journal in the medical informatics field.