NEWS

Taylor & Francis converts six further journals to open access
through Collective Pathway to Open Publishing

Expansion of diamond OA model supported by new agreements in UK and Australasia

Taylor & Francis has announced an expansion of its innovative diamond open access (OA) model, Collective Pathway to Open Publishing (CPOP), through its agreements with Jisc in the UK and CAUL in Australasia. Collective support has enabled six new journals to open up their 2026 volumes, ensuring researchers worldwide can publish OA without paying an article publishing charge (APC).

Taylor & Francis has created CPOP as a new OA model for Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) journals. It combines funding from OA agreements, support from subscribing institutions, and other read-access fees. Journals are made OA one volume at a time if they receive sufficient support for that year, and authors do not have to pay an APC. It also includes specialist and professional content, such as book reviews, systematic reviews, and practitioner articles, which are important for HSS journals but not included in typical OA agreements.

The new CPOP journals for 2026 are: Australian Archaeology, Contemporary British History, Critical Studies in Education, Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, King’s Law Journal and Studies in Theatre & Performance. These journals are all based in either the UK or Australasia, each with a high proportion of authors from those regions.

Adding these titles to CPOP supports the OA transition in portfolios such as Arts & Humanities and Education, which are widely published in by Jisc- and CAUL-affiliated researchers. OA partnerships are critical pathways to OA for these subject areas; in 2025, 81% of OA research in Arts & Humanities journals and 73% in Education was funded by an agreement.

Additionally, Nordic Psychology and Nordic Social Work Research, which were converted to OA in CPOP’s first year, have met the necessary thresholds to remain OA for 2026. These journals published 71 OA articles in their 2025 volumes, with a combined readership of over 43,500 downloads since conversion in April 2025.

Anna Vernon, Head of Research Licensing, Jisc, said: “Jisc is committed to working with the research community to support open access approaches that are inclusive and sustainable. Pilots like Collective Pathway to Open Publishing help explore collective models that work for disciplines where APC based routes are less effective, enabling valued journals to transition to open access in ways that reflect the needs of their communities.”

Bob Gerrity, University Librarian at Monash University and Chair of the CAUL Taylor & Francis Negotiation Working Group, said: “CAUL is taking a multi-pronged approach to advancing a sustainable open research ecosystem and supports the expansion of open access publishing models that meet the varied needs of research disciplines.

The Taylor & Francis Collective Pathway to Open Publishing model will transition three journals in the Australasian region from partial to full open access, enabling CAUL Members and the wider community to engage with research without cost barriers. CAUL supports the exploration of this new model and welcomes the prospect of further journals relevant to our region being included in the model in future years.”

Cathie Warburton, CEO at the Australian Library and Information Association, said: “ALIA welcomes the CPOP model from Taylor & Francis which facilitates a significant increase in the number of open access articles in our professional journal JALIA. We acknowledge the important work done by CAUL in making this possible.”

Alex Robinson, Managing Director Academic and Chief Commercial Officer at Taylor & Francis, said: “CPOP is one of several pilot ideas we’re exploring in order to offer equitable open access options for the Humanities and Social Sciences, subject areas which otherwise have limited funding for OA publishing. I'm very grateful to our partners at CAUL, Jisc and the Nordic consortia, as well as the journals’ societies and editors, for their enthusiastic support of this innovative approach to OA.”