Changes to agreements with academic publishers
National agreements with academic publishers are undergoing changes. This affects both access to academic articles and the terms and conditions of publication. Here is an overview of the background, what is changing and what this might mean in practice.
Publisher agreements – access and open access publishing
Staff at Lund University have access to academic journals and the opportunity to publish open access through agreements that are largely negotiated at the national level. These negotiations are handled by the Bibsam Consortium, which represents Swedish universities and university colleges. This means that most of the agreements giving researchers at Lund University access to read and publish open access are not signed locally.
Since 2016, these agreements have increasingly combined read access and open access publishing, with the aim of gradually expanding open access to research results. The aim has been to shift costs from subscriptions to publishing and to create a more transparent and sustainable model in the long term.
Shift in focus of the agreements
After a decade of agreements combining access to content and open access publishing, Bibsam concludes that the model has led to an increase in open access publishing. At the same time, the agreements have not resulted in any clear or lasting changes in pricing or in publishers’ business models.
Ahead of the upcoming negotiations, the consortium has decided to pursue a new direction. This includes an increased focus on publishing in fully open access journals and on developing alternative publishing models.
The new direction includes the following key priorities:
- Focus on open-access journals
Agreements will no longer be signed for both reading access and publishing in hybrid journals. Hybrid journals are subscription-based journals where articles can be published open access for an additional fee. From 2026 onwards, the aim is for agreements to cover only open access journals. - Support for new publishing models
New pathways to open publishing will be promoted and supported, and alternative business models will be developed. Researcher-driven journals that want to migrate from traditional publishers to other platforms are also to be supported. - Requirements for open licenses
Publication should take place under an open licence, in accordance with the FAIR principles, and copyright conditions should be explored and used to promote open access, for example through secondary publication ((self-archiving in an open access repository).
Publisher agreements being renegotiated in 2026
Agreements with publishers are renegotiated on an ongoing basis. In 2026, reading and publishing agreements will be renegotiated with:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- Bristol University Press
- Wiley
For researchers submitting articles in 2026 to journals covered by these agreements, different terms may apply by the time the article is accepted or published.
Effects and challenges of the new direction
This new direction brings both potential benefits and certain challenges for how scholarly results are published and made available.
In the long term, this change could have several positive effects:
- A more transparent and sustainable scholarly publishing market through a stronger focus on fully open-access journals.
- More opportunities to publish in researcher-led and non-profit journals through increased support for alternative publishing models.
- Strengthen open science through requirements for open licences and support for the FAIR principles, thereby facilitating the reuse of scholarly results.
In practice, the transition may present the following challenges in the short term:
- Researchers who currently publish in hybrid journals may need to find alternative publishing options and funding routes. Researchers remain free to choose their publishing channel, but not all options may be eligible for financial support.
- As the current agreements are phased out, new ways of funding publication and ensuring access to scholarly journals will need to be developed.
- During the transition, these changes may create uncertainty around publishing agreements and access to content.
The libraries at Lund University are monitoring developments and will provide regular updates. If you have any questions, please contact your faculty library or the University Library.
Questions and answers about access and publishing
During the transition, access to subscription-based articles may be affected if agreements with certain publishers are not in place. In such cases, access may need to be arranged through interlibrary loans and document delivery.
The Bibsam Consortium is working to develop solutions to ensure continued access, but the exact arrangements have not yet been finalised.
Access to previously subscribed content varies depending on the agreement. In most cases, access remains available to volumes published during the subscription period.
There may be exceptions where access will be unavailable or restricted.
If you cannot access an article, you can request it through the library’s interlibrary loan service.
The Bibsam Consortium’s action plan does not restrict researchers’ choice of publication channel.
Researchers continue to decide for themselves where and how their research results are published, and may therefore also publish in so-called hybrid journals (subscription-based journals in which articles can be made open access for an additional fee).
The new approach will gradually phase out agreements that cover publication costs in hybrid journals. Without such agreements, publication costs will no longer be covered as before and will instead need to be funded by other means.
There is some uncertainty as to whether an article submitted today will be covered by a future agreement. This will depend partly on the outcome of forthcoming negotiations and partly on the practices of individual publishers and journals. A key factor is the date used to determine whether an article is included in an agreement.
For agreements renegotiated in 2026 (with new terms taking effect from 2027), the following key dates are used to determine whether an article is covered:
Association for Computing Machinery, ACM (acceptance date)
American Physical Society, APS (acceptance date)
Bristol University Press (submission date)
Wiley (acceptance date)
The changes will be introduced gradually as existing agreements expire. It is currently difficult to predict the exact outcome, as this depends on how forthcoming negotiations develop.
2026: Negotiation year for the following: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), American Physical Society (APS), Bristol University Press och Wiley. The agreements take effect in 2027.
2027: Negotiation year for the following: Cambridge University Press, Company of Biologists, Emerald, Elsevier, John Benjamins, Karger, Microbiology Society, Portland Press, Royal Society Publishing, SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics, IOS Press, Royal Society of Chemistry och SAGE. The agreements take effect in 2028.
2028: Negotiation year for the following: AIP Publishing, Brill, De Gruyter, Institute of Physics (IOP), The International Water Association (IWA), Nature Research Journals, Springer Nature och Taylor & Francis. The agreements take effect in 2029.
National coordination of publisher agreements
Agreements with academic publishers for Swedish universities, higher education institutions, government agencies and research institutes are coordinated nationally through Bibsam, a consortium led by the National Library of Sweden (KB). The consortium currently includes 97 participating organisations.
In 2025, the consortium's total turnover amounted to approximately SEK 647 million.
In 2025, Lund University’s costs for reading and publishing agreements amounted to approximately SEK 62 million.
Publisher agreements are renegotiated continuously, following different timelines.
In 2026, reading and publishing agreements are renegotiated with American Physical Society (APS), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Bristol University Press and Wiley.
Terms and definitions
The FAIR principles
The FAIR principles aim to ensure that research results are findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.
Hybrid journal
Subscription-based journals in which articles can be made open access for a fee.
Open access journal
Journal where all articles are freely available online to anyone, without cost or subscription. Publication is often funded through a fee per article.
The libraries at Lund University
Contact your faculty library
Contact the University Library
For questions regarding publishing and changes in publisher agreements.