Could open access agreements work for pharma?

Open access agreements, also known as transformative agreements or read-and-publish deals, have grown in popularity and scale over the past decade, and many publishers view them as a rapid and sustainable way to make their journals open access. The agreements have become an increasingly popular choice among academic institutions, but could these deals be a valid option for pharma researchers too?

Our Members and Supporters attempted to answer this question at our recent roundtable meeting, with the help of representatives from a number of both large and small publishing companies.

The roundtable sparked many insightful and thought-provoking discussions about topics including:

• the need for a ‘reuse’ component in industry open access agreements to replace reprint and figure permission fees
• the challenges of monitoring open access publishing and journal usage statistics within pharma companies
• whether open access agreements influence author journal choice.

Read the full report of the meeting on our website or on our figshare page.