Article Processing Charges (APCs) are fees paid by an author, institution, or funder to a publisher to make a scholarly article open access, meaning it can be freely read online. These fees cover journal production costs like editing, peer review, hosting, and archiving. The charge applies to open access journals, and in a hybrid model, authors can choose to pay it to make their individual article open access, while the rest of the journal remains behind a paywall.
“Transformative agreement” is an umbrella term describing those agreements negotiated between institutions (libraries, national and regional 
consortia) and publishers in which former subscription expenditures are repurposed to support open access publishing of the negotiating institutions’ authors, thus transforming the business model underlying scholarly journal publishing, gradually and definitively shifting from one based on toll access (subscription) to one in which publishers are remunerated a fair price for their open access publishing services.
These agreements are a significant departure from the previous standard in subscription license agreements, as they bring the two transactional sides of subscription-based journals, reading access (subscription fees paid by libraries) and open access publishing (“hybrid” APCs predominantly paid by authors), under one centrally negotiated agreement. The dual aim of the negotiations is to bring institutional investments in scholarly journal publishing under oversight and control, with an eye to cost reduction, and to drive a transition of scholarly journal publishing to open access."
The South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC) has negotiated a Transformative Agreement with various publishers. SANLiC has a guide which provides an overview of all the current read and publish (R&P) agreements. 
These agreements enable libraries to provide read access to paywalled content while simultaneously repurposing reading subscription expenditure to finance open access publishing in the same journal collections. Students, academic staff and researchers can access high quality paywalled scholarly content while authors can publish full and immediate open access in hybrid journals without paying APCs in most cases or at a discounted rate in some fully open access journals. Authors from participating institutions are eligible for OA publishing in the titles included in these agreements.
Please note that it is the researchers responsibility to double-check the DHET accreditation of a specific journal.
Click here:
1. For more information about the terms of the Transformative Agreement
2. To view the list the journal titles of the Journals that fall within this Transformative Agreement
The allocated free Article Processing Charges (APCs) and Tokens for this Transformative Agreement are managed by the Research Office.
Contact the Research Office for your APC and Token queries
Alphabetical integrated list of accredited journals for 2025 (including all 7 lists below)
American Chemical Society (ACS) (2023-2025)
Founded in 1876 and chartered by the U.S. Congress, we are one of the world’s largest scientific organizations with membership of over 151,000 in 140 countries. 
Our mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people. Our vision is to improve people’s lives through the transforming power of chemist
Association of Computer Machinery (ACM) (2024-2026)
ACM, the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, delivers resources that advance computing as a science and a profession. 
ACM provides the computing field's premier Digital Library and serves its members and the computing profession with leading-edge publications, conferences, and career resources.
For Rhodes University Authors:
Cambridge University Press (CUP) (2021-2024)
Cambridge University Press (CUP) publishes more than 450 peer-reviewed academic journals, covering subjects across the Humanities, Social Sciences, Science, Technology and Medicine. 
60% authors publish with academic societies and institutions
50% authors publish under an Open Access (OA) model
CUP has partnered with Rhodes University to help authors publish their research via the Gold Open Access (OA) model.
This partnership comprises of a Transformative Agreement which is a publisher-institution contract to facilitate open access readership AND publishing. This is also known as a Read & Publish Deal.
CUP makes the reading content openly accessible while considering publishing submitted institutional content
Rhodes University covers the cost of reading AND agreed numbers of author publication charges
To find out if you're eligible, please use CUP's checker tool.
Emerald (2022-2024)
Emerald is a global publisher committed to publishing impactful research. 
Choose the right home for your research across our journals, books, teaching cases and open access options. Follow our guides and find the resources to help you submit, publish and promote your work
Follow our guide to publishing your paper in an Emerald journal and find resources to support you. Our journal publishing infographic will help you understand each step, from submission to publication.
Emerald Open Research is a new and pioneering way to rapidly publish a range of research outputs, from original research articles to case studies and data notes.
Research will be freely available to read, download and reuse, reaching a truly global audience. Emerald Open Research also offers open peer review, controlled by the author and an open data policy.
Initially Emerald Open Research will offer six gateways publishing research on the following themes aligned to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals:
As an author, if you are affiliated with one of our partner organisations, you may be eligible for a prepaid APC voucher.
See our list of current partnerships
To qualify for a voucher, the primary affiliation of the corresponding author must correspond to the institution participating in the voucher scheme. Where possible, you should use your official institutional email address to additionally indicate your affiliation.
If your affiliation changes prior to acceptance of the article, you will no longer be eligible for the voucher. If you have any queries about your affiliation, you should speak to your institution for advice prior to submission.
Emerald believes that the affiliation on a research article should correspond to the institution at which that research took place. Any requests for changes to affiliation post-submission will be handled in accordance with our corrections policy.
Microbiology Society 2023 Publish and Read Package gives unlimited publishing for authors in any Microbiology Society Journals without incurring any publishing charges. (License will be signed in 2023) RU will pay for the subscription to the Journal of General Virology R xx.
Unlimited publishing for RU authors without additional publishing charges in the following journals:
The allocated free Article Processing Charges (APCs) and Tokens for this Transformative Agreement are managed by the Research Office.
Oxford University Press (OUP) (2023-2025)
Oxford University Press Southern Africa is an educational publisher with 100 years of experience in South Africa, publishing for schools and higher education. 
We are South Africa’s number one dictionary and literacy publisher, and produce a wide range of quality curriculum-compliant educational material for use in the classroom and at home. Using local experts and authors, we have published more than 2,700 books in 11 languages. Through award-winning service and world-class logistics, we reach millions of learners, students, teachers and lecturers each year.
Our books and services are well-researched, relevant and engaging as part of our commitment to advancing teaching and learning in South Africa.
Royal Society (2022-2024)
The package includes allocated APC tokens for publishing in RSC hybrid journals. 
The eligible author must be the PRIMARY corresponding author as designated upon article submission.
Authors who do not qualify for articles to be published as OA for FREE shall be charged a 15% discount on the standard article processing charge (APC) to publish their article as an OA article.
The title list of the hybrid journals can be found in Schedule A of the license agreement. View the full title list here.
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) (2024-2027) 
Transformational agreements allow researchers unlimited read access to a portfolio of journals, plus funding to cover Article Publication Charges when choosing to publish open access.
This agreement commenced in 2024. It is a four-year agreement (2024-2027)
The Royal Society of Chemistry is a not-for-profit organisation for the advancement of the chemical sciences.
Their journals cover the core chemical sciences and related fields such as biology, energy and the environment, engineering, materials, medicine and physics
Click here for more information about a Read & Publish agreement
Click here for more information about the publishing process at the Royal Society of Chemistry
Sage Publishing (2022-2024) 
The details of the agreement are as follows:
The corresponding author must be affiliated with a member institution participating in the license agreement for their article to qualify for the article processing charge (APC) discount.
Please review the participating member institution list for more information.
Subscription journals: Corresponding authors publishing an article in 900+ subscription journals (the 2022 SAGE Premier package) which offer hybrid open access publishing (SAGE Choice) can be published open access, free of charge. Charges other than the author article process charge (APC) may still apply, please refer to individual journal submission guidelines.
Authors in subscription journals do not need to take any action to benefit from this offer. SAGE will contact all eligible authors informing them of the Open Access agreement with SANLiC inviting them to the SAGE Open Access Portal to take up the offer as soon as their accepted article has been received into SAGE’s Production department.
Please note all authors should still complete the steps to sign SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement on acceptance as normal. SAGE still requires this agreement for your article to proceed to production at SAGE. Through the SAGE Open Access Portal, you will automatically receive an open access (SAGE Choice) Contributor’s Agreement that will replace the earlier signed agreement.
Gold open access journals: Corresponding authors publishing an article in a gold open access journal are also entitled to a 20% discount on the prevailing article processing charge (APC) for that journal. For participating journals view the Gold journal title list. This discount will be applied automatically in the SAGE Open Access Portal. Where an author is eligible for more than one discount, discounts cannot be combined but the highest discount available to the author will be applied to the APC due.
ScienceDirect (Elsevier) (2023-2025) 
The allocated free Article Processing Charges (APCs) and Tokens for this Transformative Agreement are managed by the Research Office.
SCOAP3 (Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics) (2020-2024)
5 year agreement 2020-2024 
SANLiC acts as the South African representative for SCOAP3 and as such is responsible for collecting the funds needed to finance South Africa’s share of the cost of this form of open access publishing.
RU has a subscription to Physical Review C and D at discounted pricing plus Universities with Physics Depts pay EUR XXX per year plus the standard SANLiC service fee membership to this Agreement. As a result, Authors will not pay any fees to publish in the below SCOAP3 journals.
Springer has one of the strongest STM and HSS eBook collections and archives, as well as a comprehensive range of hybrid and open access journals and books under the SpringerOpen imprint. 
Springer is part of Springer Nature, a global publisher that serves and supports the research community. Springer Nature aims to advance discovery by publishing robust and insightful science, supporting the development of new areas of research and making ideas and knowledge accessible around the world.
As part of Springer Nature, Springer sits alongside other trusted brands like Nature Research, BMC and Palgrave Macmillan.
Taylor and Francis (2024-2026)
This agreement commenced in 2024. It is a three-year agreement (2024-2026) 
Institutions participating in this agreement have reading access to nearly 2 000 journals in the:
Eligible authors, affiliated to subscribing institutions, can:
Wiley (2022-2025) 
See our "Where are Wiley's transformational agreements?" table for a full list of institutions and consortia that are covered in each of our transformational agreements.
Self-archiving (also referred to as green open access)
Self-archiving allows non-final versions to be hosted on a personal or institutional website. Submitted versions may be archived immediately and accepted versions after an embargo period. Learn more about green open access at Wiley on our Self-Archiving page.
What does a transformational agreement look like?
Whilst each TA is unique, there are some commonalities shared by many, for example:
1. The agreement term is set.
2. The agreements combine read access and open access publishing.
3. Many include open access publishing in fully gold and hybrid journals.
4. Most include a discount to the consortium or institution on the APC.
5. They cover research articles and reviews unless otherwise specified.
With Wiley Open Access Accounts, APCs may be covered in full or part for affiliated authors publishing in Wiley fully open access journals or in a hybrid journal (subscription journal which offers open access). Visit the Hybrid open access page for more information.
