Open Access Week begins Monday, Oct. 19. This annual global event celebrates open access, the free and immediate online availability of scholarly research, and encourages researchers to share their work as widely as possible.
As part of the celebration, UCR Library wants to remind UCR authors that the University of California has many open access publishing agreements that let you publish open access at no cost or at a discount. If you are not sure whether your target journal is covered, keep the Journal Open Access Lookup Tool (JOLT) in mind. It lets you check journal-level specifics for UC Open Access agreements in just a few clicks.
These agreements are in place to remove financial barriers so your research can reach as many readers as possible, and they are easy to use. UCR authors only need to use their UCR email address when submitting to a participating journal. Payment workflows are handled automatically on the publishers’ side and are not routed to the UCR Library, so there is nothing extra to fill out.
You can read more about the agreements and find answers to frequently asked questions on the UC Office of Scholarly Communication’s publishing discounts page.
So as you plan your next submission, remember to check UC Open Access Publishing agreements. And if you need general scholarly communication assistance, visit our Scholarly Communication Services page to see how we can help you.
You can learn more about Open Access Week 2026 on the International Open Access Week website.