Library News & Updates

International Open Access Week: Transformative Agreements & Subscribe to Open (S2O)

Transformative Agreements & Open Access

Advocates of open access to scholarly research have formulated new types of agreements between libraries and publishers. One example is Transformative Agreements, so called because they seek to transform the longstanding academic publishing model from libraries funding toll access (subscriptions) to libraries funding open access.

Transformative (also known as Read & Publish) agreements between a library and a publisher essentially shift the payment of a journal’s publication fees (which cover editorial costs, peer review coordination, etc.) from the author/researcher to the library or institution. At the same time, research published under this model is made available to the public – open access – thereby reaching a larger audience.

This means that faculty researchers do not need to pay article processing charges (APCs) when they publish in journals with such agreements in place. For example, Seattle University has a Read & Publish agreement signed with the Association of Computing Machinery.

Subscribe to Open (S2O)

A second example of this new kind of agreement between libraries and publishers is called Subscribe to Open (S2O) which requires cooperation between libraries to achieve open access. In this model, a publisher agrees to convert a subscription journal to open access – provided that enough libraries continue to subscribe to the journal. Author/researchers from subscribing institutions also do not pay article processing charges (APCs) to publish in such a journal.

For example, Seattle University has S2O agreements in place for the following journals:

• Annual review of ecology, evolution, and systematics
• Annual review of environment and resources
• Annual review of psychology
• Annual review of sociology
• Biochemical journal
• Journal of applied physiology
• Journal of bacteriology
• Microbiology and molecular biology reviews
• Pacific journal of mathematics
• Project Muse titles

Over time, Transformative and S2O agreements will not only shake up academic publishing (breaking away from traditional “pay to read” business models) but will also increase information-sharing and will broaden the availability of open access research for anyone to read and build upon.

Get In Touch

Got questions about Transformative Agreements, Subscribe to Open (S2O) or Open Access? We'd love to hear from you! You can reach us 24/7 at askalibrarian@seattleu.edu.

Thank you to Matthew Lechner, Electronic Resources & Discovery Librarian at Lemieux Library, for contributing this piece to the Library's International Open Access Week 2026 Blog Series.