European Journal of International Security now fully open access
We are delighted to announce that all articles accepted for publication in our journal the European Journal of International Security (EJIS) from 9 September 2024 will be fully open access. The costs of open access publication will be covered through agreements between Cambridge University Press and the author’s institution, or through the payment of APCs from grant or other funds if available. If neither of those routes is possible then the costs will be waived entirely, ensuring every author can publish and enjoy the benefits of OA.
The transition of academic research journals to open access has a long history stretching back well over twenty years. One of the greatest challenges during this time has been how to make fully open access journals a sustainable reality in academic fields outside the core of well-funded STEM disciplines. Although most social science and humanities journals have been ‘hybrid’ for a decade or more, offering the option of open access publication alongside the traditional paywalled route, many authors have not been in a position to pay the required fees.
All this has changed in recent years with the advent of ‘transformative’ sales agreements, an approach also known as ‘read and publish’. These agreements bundle together open access publishing with the ability to read the paywalled content, creating a single institutional payment. BISA journal publisher Cambridge University Press was an early backer of these agreements, and their rapid global expansion since 2018 now allows us to consider converting previously hybrid journals to 100% open access.
Under this approach, every single piece of new content in a converted journal will be published on a fully open access basis, regardless of the author’s affiliation or funding position. We are able to do this because most authors in such journals will be covered by a Cambridge University Press transformative sales agreement. Those who are not covered and who do not have access to funding for an APC will have their fees waived without question. This last part is the key to making sustainable open access publishing available to all and means that this is a truly pivotal moment in HSS research communication.
We are delighted that EJIS will be making the transition, and about the possibilities that this creates for the journal – and BISA - to shape and accelerate scholarly debate. EJIS will be one of more than 100 Cambridge University Press journals making the transition to full open access in 2024 or 2025, with a further group making the move in 2026. This includes titles of all types, sizes, and subject areas, from philosophy to physics via international relations, and from all parts of the world.
BISA Chair, Professor Kyle Grayson, notes:
“We believe that moving EJIS to fully open access is absolutely the right move at this time. Beyond ensuring that every paper now published by EJIS is accessible to all, we are pleased that colleagues from around the world will be able to continue to publish in the journal regardless of their institutional funding situations. This is a win for researchers in the field and a win for inclusive scholarly publishing.”
For more information see Cambridge’s FAQ.
