BMJ and Jisc collaborate to support open access publishing across the UK

Healthcare knowledge provider, BMJ, and not for profit technology provider for research and education, Jisc, have agreed a ‘publish and read’ pilot as part of their commitment to help promote knowledge and speed up discoveries to improve healthcare across the UK.

The 12-month pilot agreement builds on a long-standing collaboration between the two organisations.

It grants Jisc members full read access to the BMJ’s standard collection of 28 specialist journals, and gives researchers at these member institutions the opportunity to publish funded articles on an open access basis in BMJ's Standard Collection of journals.

Under the agreement, research funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Wellcome, and key medical charities in the UK can be published open access, helping to make UK research more accessible and sustainable.

As a global knowledge provider, BMJ has a long-standing reputation as a pioneering publisher and champion of open access research, while Jisc supports UK universities and research institutions in negotiating transformative agreements with publishers.

Jisc has negotiated agreements with various publishers covering about 50% of UK research. Even though there are several different kinds of agreements, the objective of all our deals is to support the UK transition to open access so that in the longer term more content is freely available to read and reuse. Jisc member institutions that sign up to the agreements pay fees to participate in the same way they have previously paid for subscription access or paid article processing charges for open access publishing.

Claire Rawlinson, publisher at BMJ said:

“This agreement is a demonstration of our commitment to the transition to an open access future, making the content of our world-leading collection of specialist journals available to as wide an audience as possible.” 

She added:

“Through this agreement with Jisc, BMJ aims to continue, redefine and grow a longstanding partnership, whilst supporting open access publishing across UK medical universities. We look forward to working with Jisc on a shared goal of supporting the scientific community to help create a healthier world.”

Caren Milloy, director of licencing at Jisc says:

“This pilot agreement is a tangible result of our joint mission of making open access the default for academic publishing and we’re delighted that the pilot allows our members to meet funder mandates during 2021.’

Update - 9 February 2021

Updated to include more detail about the agreements that Jisc negotiates.