Consistent with our mandate to represent and advocate for Victorian health libraries, VHLC is working with our membership and providers to clarify Open Access within our sector. The communications below form part of a growing library of informative documents.
- OA statement made in late 2023
- OA Principles to Guide Negotiations
- Read and Publish Agreement Requirements
So far in 2024, the VHLC Committee heard from BMJ, SpringerNature, Elsevier, Wiley, Wolters-Kluwer, Sage and EBSCO to hear the current OA strategy of vendors and inform future VHLC deals and negotiations.
Some themes that emerged from these discussions included:
- CAUL agreements and how this might work in a Health Library sector;
- Updates from Australia’s Chief Scientist Cathy Foley;
- Read and publish agreements and how this impacts the role of librarians;
- The difference between Gold Open Access (GOA) and Hybrid open access journals and how this impacts user access and journal metrics;
- Library manager reporting on ROI when OA content is included.
VHLC currently has some R&P (Read and Publish for OA publishing)/APC (Article Processing Charges) deals in place:
| Publisher | Details | Article Submission Process | OA APC Approval | Status |
| Cambridge | OA publishing available for included journals | Available 1 January 2025 | ||
| Karger | OA publishing available for included journals | Available 1 January 2025 | ||
| Oxford University Press | Eligible authors from the institution can request use of this account to pay the Open Access charge when arranging payment in OUP’s online licensing and payment system. | – details of the deal – step-by-step user guide – VHLC micro site | Once your article has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication, you will be sent a link to SciPris. Your institutional affiliation and article type will be checked to determine if you are eligible to use the funds to pay for the OA APC. | Available 1 April 2025 |
| Ovid Journals | OA publishing in select Ovid/LWW titles | – Author Tools & Resources | Available once article is accepted for publication (post-editorial acceptance). Corresponding author selects participating institution as their affiliation during submission/payment. | Available 1 January 2025 |
| Springer Journals | OA publishing in any hybrid Springer Nature or Palgrave journal. Excludes fully OA titles. | – Information for authors – Publish an article – OA Publishing Library Guide | Available once article is accepted for publication (post-editorial acceptance). Corresponding author selects participating institution as their affiliation during submission/payment. | Available 1 January 2025. |
| Taylor & Francis | OA publishing available for the 85 journals in this package. | – details of the deal | Available 1 January 2026 | |
| Wiley Journals | OA publishing in any hybrid Wiley journal. Excludes fully OA titles. | – details of the deal – publish an article | Available 2 February 2026 |
In 2024, VHLC invited vendors to present on their Open Access policies and how they are navigating OA in the future.
VHLC 