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Curtin Library Publishing Newsletter, March 2026

March 25th, 2026, by Kitty Delaney Tag(s): Publishing Newsletter

Welcome to the first Curtin Library Publishing Newsletter for 2026. We want to share an update on the current Open Access Publishing agreements. The open access agreements allow Curtin authors to publish their research open access in selected journals without having to pay article processing charges (APCs).

While negotiations with publishers took some time, we did manage to get agreements in place with all four of the major publishers. We also have a new separate agreement in place with OVID LWW (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins).

Open Access Publishing Agreements – 2026

As part of the Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL) negotiations, the following agreements are in place:

Taylor & Francis – there will be no individual article processing charges on any hybrid or gold journals.
Wiley – this is an uncapped hybrid journal open access agreement with a capped agreement on gold open access journals.
Springer – uncapped hybrid journal open access agreements with some gold open access journals included. The agreements cover hybrid journals from Springer, Palgrave and Adis imprints as well as the Academic Journals on Nature.com.
Elsevier – this agreement allows for uncapped open access agreements in most of Elsevier’s hybrid journals. There will be discounts on the gold open access journals that are not included in the agreement.

The library has an individual agreement in place with OVID LWW (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins) for their range of medical and nursing journals. This has been negotiated by the library directly with the publisher. We have an agreement capped at 30 articles for the year. You can find the list of eligible journals here. The journals have also been added to the Research Toolkit Journal Titles search.

Checklist

If you want to use the Curtin Open Access Publishing agreements the following checklist will be helpful when you are considering submitting to a journal:

Confirm the journal is included in the agreement through the Research Toolkit Journal Titles search.
Ensure your article type is eligible – check the individual publisher list at the CAUL website - (Scroll down to Article Types section).
Check for additional charges (e.g. page charges, colour charges).
Check if there are any caps in place and if they are close to being exhausted (this information will appear in the Journal Titles search on the Research Toolkit).
Ensure that your acceptance date falls within the agreement’s term.

Eligibility

When you submit your manuscript make sure that you comply with the following conditions:

You must be the corresponding author
You must be affiliated with Curtin University
You must use your Curtin University email address

Predatory publishing

Predatory publishers go to new lengths to scam authors. Taylor & Francis are warning authors that fraudulent manuscript and acceptance letters are being sent to authors, leading them to believe their manuscripts have been submitted to a Taylor & Francis journal via a submitting agent or manuscript editing service! So, if you think you may have been targeted, contact the Strategic Publishing team for advice.

Open AI and publishing scams

It was only a matter of time before predatory publishers found a way to use AI to scam authors. Per Henningsgaard, a lecturer at Curtin, has written a piece in the Conversation on how a global publishing scam using AI has targeted Australia. In his article he includes 5 tips to avoid scammers. Although the article focuses on book publishing, the advice is very relevant to all authors and researchers. You can read the article here.

GRASP Ideas Hub

The Ideas Hub is a blog specifically for HDR students although the content may be of interest to all researchers. You can find it in the Research Toolkit. There are some great blog posts that are relevant to publishing, including:

A bit of light reading

The peer review system is breaking down: here is how we can fix it

The publishing model is entirely dependent on voluntary, free labour from academics. If nothing changes within the system all those depending on published research will be affected. This article in the Conversation highlights some of the issues facing universities, academics and the access to critically reviewed research. The authors have noted some changes that can be made short term, but that more robust reform needs to be implemented and a solution needs action from many stakeholders including universities, funders and research assessment bodies.

Reformation of science publishing – the Stockholm declaration

Responding to the rise of predatory publishers and an increase in scientists purchasing fake publications from paper mills, The Royal Swedish academy of Sciences convened a conference to look at current publishing models and form a response. The conference was a call to action for universities, academics, science organisations and funders to unite and join the action. You can read the article here.

Metrics and the obsession with numbers

Introducing the j-metric: a true measure of what matters in academia. This satirical article on the rise of metrics highlights the complexity facing academics and researchers in measuring and evaluating the impact of academic output. Dariusz Jemielniak has an interesting take on the subject culminating in the sentence – “As academia becomes McDonaldized…..one phrase becomes relevant: do you want cites with that?”

The Strategic Publishing Service @ Curtin Library

The Research Services team provides a Strategic Publishing service for academics, staff and students at Curtin University. We encourage you to contact us if you have any publishing enquiries.

Some fun facts:

You kept the Curtin Library team very busy in 2025:

The Research Services team answered over 250 questions about publishing.
Curtin authors have had 608+ articles accepted under the Read & Publish agreements.
We avoided over $3,275,000.00+ in article processing charges.
We successfully advocated for Curtin academics with publishers on several occasions.

As always, we wish you the best of luck with your publishing!

Contacts:

General enquiries: Library Research Services

Strategic publishing: Book a consultation

GRASP: Library Research Services

Institutional repository: espace team