What is a Transformative Agreement?
Answer
A transformative agreement is a contract that covers any author processing charges (APCs) that may arise when submitting and publishing an article with a given publisher.
Many open access journals have traditionally operated under the Gold Open Access Model, or the “author pays” model, whereby the submitting author is expected to pay a fee for hosting and for the editorial process in return for the article being freely available. As the demand for open access publication has increased, many traditional publishers have begun to offer subscription models under which any resulting APCs are covered in advance, at no cost to the authors (i.e. transformative agreements).
The traditional subscription model was a “pay to read” model, by which libraries or individuals would subscribe in order to access content. This new, emerging model is a “pay to publish” model, whereby libraries and institutions are paying for APCs, with read access included as well for non-open access/subscription-based content.