Microbiology Society Publish and Read Agreement

 The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) libraries have reached a three-year Publish and Read Agreement with the Microbiology Society, one more step in collective action toward the BIG Collection. This agreement begins on January 1, 2023, and runs through December 31, 2025.

Journal Access

The agreement includes access to the entire archive of Society content, back to 1947, for reading and for text and data mining.

Open Access Publishing Opportunities

The agreement supports unlimited Open Access (OA) publishing in Microbiology Society journals. There is no limit to the number of articles that can be published OA under this agreement. To qualify for no-cost OA publication, the article must be accepted between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2025 and have a responsible corresponding author from a BTAA institution.

Authors must identify themselves as affiliated with a BTAA institution and use their institutional email address as part of the publishing workflow. Articles published in Society journals where the responsible corresponding author is from a BTAA institution will be OA by default. 

Participating Institutions:

University of Chicago

University of Illinois    

Indiana University    

University of Iowa    

University of Maryland    

University of Michigan     

Michigan State University    

University of Minnesota    

University of Nebraska-Lincoln    

Northwestern University 

The Ohio State University

Penn State University      

Purdue University    

Rutgers University  

University of Wisconsin-Madison

FAQ

I’m a corresponding author at a BTAA institution. What do I need to do to publish Open Access at no cost to me under this agreement?

The Microbiology Society checks corresponding author eligibility as part of the submission and publication process using email domain names. Submit your manuscript to a Society journal using your institutional email address and include your institutional affiliation.

Eligible institutional domains for each BTAA institution are listed on the Society’s Fee-free OA webpage. Additional prefixes after '@' denoting sub-domains, e.g., name@xxxx.osu.edu will be accepted. 

Corresponding authors will indicate the Publish and Read route for Open Access during the submission process. Select "Yes" for the "Are you eligible for fee-free Open Access via a Publish and Read agreement?" and "Do you wish to publish Open Access?" questions.

Once the article has been accepted, APCs are covered by the agreement and your article will be published Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) at no cost to you.

Is there any limit on the number of articles that may be published Open Access under this agreement?

No, there is no limit to the number of articles that may be published OA under this agreement.

Which Microbiology Society journals are eligible for no-cost OA publication under this agreement?

All six of the Society’s journals, including hybrid titles Journal of General Virology, Journal of Medical Microbiology, and International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, and fully OA titles Access Microbiology, Microbial Genomics, and Microbiology are eligible for no-cost OA publication under this agreement.

Is my article eligible?

Eligible publications have a responsible corresponding author from a BTAA institution and are accepted for publication between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2025. All publication types are eligible under this agreement.

Is there anything more I need to do if my work is made Open Access through this agreement?

It depends!  If you or any of your co-authors have funding from the US federal government or one of many other funders, you may have a requirement to share your article in a specific location.  Please ensure you follow your funder requirements to avoid jeopardizing future funding.