Q. Is there a Read and Publish Deal with the American Chemical Society (ACS)?

A national Read and Publish agreement has been agreed with the American Chemical Society. Pending the release of the licensing agreement, it is anticipated that the 2025 agreement will be signed by the University in late May 2025. 

What does this mean for getting access to ACS journal content? 

Staff and students will be able to access all ACS journal content via the University Library website. ACS will continue to provide access to journal articles for the University of Liverpool, pending the final sign-off of the 2025 agreement. 

Your MWS username and password will be required to access paywalled content.

What does this mean for publishing in ACS journals? 

Staff who are the corresponding author on papers submitted to ACS journals will continue to have articles accepted for publication made available on an open access basis from those journals. Access to publishing for University of Liverpool corresponding authors will continue, pending final sign-off of the 2025 agreement. 

How much has this agreement cost? 

The ACS annual increase for the University of Liverpool is affordable in the short term but we remain deeply concerned at the unsustainability of such costs for the sector going forward. 

Have all the sector’s concerned been addressed? 

No. American Chemical Society have not moved away from their introduction of the unsustainable and unjustifiable Article Development Charge concept for authors outside of the agreement, and for contributing authors on papers with a corresponding author at a non-subscribing institution. This still represents a major impediment to sustainable academic publishing, and our participation in the read and publish agreement should not be taken in any way as an endorsement of this unjustifiable charge.