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Open Access: Transformative Agreement

What is a Transformative Agreement?

Transformative Agreement (TA) is an agreement between institutions and publishers. It makes it possible for researchers to publish their articles in open-access journals without paying an additional fee called the Article Processing Charge (APC). Instead, the APC is included in the subscription fee the institution pays the publisher. This new model has two main components: “Read” and “Publish”. The "Read" is the subscription fee institutions pay to access journal articles published behind a paywall. The "Publish" is the cost associated with publishing articles in open-access journals.

Transformative Agreements at EdUHK

The EdUHK Library has entered into a Transformative Agreement (TA) with Cambridge University Press (CUP), under which EdUHK staff and students publishing Open Access (OA) articles in CUP journals will not be required to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) within the 2023 calendar year. 

Item Description
Eligibility The corresponding author is affiliated with EdUHK at the time the paper is accepted for publication. EdUHK affiliation, address and email must be used and appear on the manuscript and the manuscript is accepted within the valid period of the agreement.
Agreement period 1st January 2023 - 31st December 2026
Type of publication Only  5 types of articles - “research article”, “review article”, “Rapid communications”, “brief report”, and “case report”. Detailed descriptions can be referred to here.
Quota limit No quota limit for individual authors as long as your articles are accepted within the agreement period.

 An author guide to paying article processing fee

 Step by step guide to publishing open access in Cambridge journals

To know more about the Cambridge University Press's OA policy, please visit its webpage.

Starting from 1 December 2023, a new Transformative Agreement between EdUHK Library and ACM will provide EdUHK researchers with unlimited Article Processing Charge (APC) waivers, i.e. free of charge, for publishing open OA articles in more than 500 conference proceedings as well as some 70 journals and technical magazines.  

Item Description
Eligibility The corresponding author is affiliated with EdUHK at the time the paper is accepted for publication. EdUHK affiliation, address and email must be used and appear on the manuscript and the manuscript is accepted within the valid period of the agreement.
Agreement period 1st December 2023 - 31st December 2026
Type of publication Research article, short paper, review article, survey article, technical note, tutorial, interview and note. See ACM webpage
Quota limit No quota limit for individual authors as long as your articles are accepted within the agreement period

Springer Nature has agreed with a transformative agreement (TA) in Hong Kong with all member libraries of the Joint University Librarians Advisory Committee (JULAC).

The new Transformative Agreement between EdUHK Library and Springer Nature will allow EdUHK researchers to publish OA articles free of charge in more than 1,900 hybrid journals (i.e. partially OA and partially by paid subscriptions) of Springer.  However, all fully OA journals of Springer as well as Nature Research journals are not included in this agreement.  

Item Description
Eligibility The corresponding author is affiliated with EdUHK at the time the paper is accepted for publication. EdUHK affiliation, address and email must be used and appear on the manuscript and the manuscript is accepted within the valid period of the agreement.
Agreement period 1st January 2024 - 31st December 2026
Type of publication 4 article types: original paper, review paper, brief communication, and continue education
Quota limit 14 quota on a first-come-first-served basis according to article acceptance date

Check the list of journals that are included in the agreement. >>

Review of Publishing Outcomes from 3 TA (January to September 2024)

We want to highlight some outcomes achieved by EdUHK scholars through three Transformative Agreements, with 20 articles published in open-access journals between January and September 2024:

  • Subject

Data Source: Scopus

  • EdUHK Department
EdUHK Department Number of Publications
Department of Early Childhood Education 4
Department of Education Policy and Leadership 4
Department of Psychology 3
Department of English Language Education 2
Department of Special Education and Counselling 2
Department of Literature and Cultural Studies 1
Department of Mathematics and Information Technology 1
Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies 1
  • Journal Title                                                                                           
Publisher Journals
Springer Asia Pacific Education Review (2)
  Cognitive Processing (1)
  Current Psychology (1)
  Education and Information Technologies (2)
  Educational Research for Policy and Practice (1)
  Higher Education (1)
  Journal of Happiness Studies (1)
  Journal of Psycholinguistic Research (1)
  Reading and Writing (3)
CUP History of Education Quarterly (1)
  Journal of Child Language (1)
  Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (1)
ACM ACM International Conference Proceeding Series (2)
  ACM Transactions on Information Systems (1)
  • Outstanding Publication

As of 17 October 2024, among 20 articles, 5 publications have achieved a Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) of over 1, indicating that they have been cited more frequently than expected based on the global average for similar publications:

FWCI Article Title
5.51

DGEKT: A Dual Graph Ensemble Learning Method for Knowledge Tracing

10.1145/3638350

3.37

Three Perspectives Of Leadership In Higher Education: Traditionalist, Reformist, Pragmatist

10.1007/s10734-023-01174-x

2.12

The Relationships Among Working Memory, State Anxiety, And Academic Performance In Chinese Undergraduates With Sld

10.1007/s11145-024-10520-z

2.12

The Effects Of Foreign Language Anxiety On English Word Reading Among Chinese Students At Risk Of English Learning Difficulties

10.1007/s11145-024-10513-y

1.68

Reimaging Teacher Resilience For Flourishing

10.1007/s40299-023-00810-5

Contact Us

Don’t miss the opportunity to publish your articles for open access free of charge by the three leading publishers.  Please feel free to contact Michelle Yiu at myhyiu@eduhk.hk should you need further information.Don’t miss the opportunity to publish your articles for open access free of charge by the three leading publishers.  Please feel free to contact Michelle Yiu at myhyiu@eduhk.hk should you need further information.