BMJ signs its first US read and publish agreement

Global healthcare knowledge provider, BMJ, has entered into its first Read and Publish agreement in the United States with Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries. The agreement allows MSU's affiliated corresponding authors to publish their primary research open access (OA) at no cost to them. The fees for publishing their work OA will be covered centrally by MSU Libraries. MSU is a global university and a land grant institution ranked as one of North America's top public universities.

This agreement allows customers to access BMJ Premier Collection journals, The BMJ, and BMJ Case Reports. It covers the cost of article processing charges (APCs) incurred by their eligible authors when publishing in any of the BMJ Premier or BMJ Gold OA titles, The BMJ, or BMJ Case Reports.

Allison Lang, publishing director at BMJ, said: “As a pioneer and champion of open access, BMJ continually looks for new ways to support the research community through our Read and Publish agreements. We will continue to provide access to quality, trusted healthcare information and support open access publishing.

“This agreement is another step forward in further transitioning research to open access to make it widely visible and accessible to support improvements in policy and practice. Additionally, we are delighted to partner with MSU, with whom we share the goal of supporting the scientific community to help create a healthier world.”

Susan Kendall, head of collections strategies at MSU Libraries said: “This agreement with BMJ is an important one for health sciences at MSU. We believe that, by providing unlimited open access publishing in all BMJ journals, we provide opportunities for the work of MSU’s researchers and healthcare professionals to have the greatest impact for the widest community possible, which fits well with our mission to ‘advance knowledge and transform lives.”

BMJ says it continues its commitment to advancing scientific discovery, it has also renewed all existing Read and Publish deals, flipped its first transformative journal, Evidence Based Medicine Mental Health, to open access, now called BMJ Mental Health; and launched two new open access journals, BMJ Oncology and BMJ Public Health.