• These are contracts that transform traditional journal subscription agreements between publishers and universities or consortia. These agreements allow for immediate open access publication of articles published by authors who are members of the institution that signs the agreement without paying an APC (Article Processing Charges).

• Thus, budgets previously allocated to "pay for access" allow a gradual transition to "pay for publishing in open access". Therefore, these agreements allow a portion of what the institution's research staff publishes in a publisher's journals to be published in open access, and eventually, all of it. 

• In case of publishing articles in co-authorship with members of other institutions and/or countries, it is recommended to consult the ESAC (Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges), global register of transformative agreements to find out which authors can benefit from transformative agreements and decide the corresponding author. 

• In 2019, the CRUE undertook to promote the Open ScienceSubsequently, a commission from the CRUE-CSIC and university libraries have negotiated transformative multi-year agreements with the publishers Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, American Chemical Society (ACS), American Institute of Physics (AIP), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).
• La UPC has agreements with the publishing houses Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) and Public Library of Science (PLOS) individually and with the publishing house Cambridge University Press through the Consortium of University Services of Catalonia. 

• Each publisher provides a certain number of APCs in the form of vouchers or a certain amount for publishing in immediate open access. It also determines in which journals the APCs can be used by indicating the specific journal titles. 

• From the platform of each publisher and during the process of publishing an article, the publisher offers the author of correspondence the possibility of publishing the article in immediate open access within the conditions of the agreement between the publishing house and its institution.

• During the process of accepting an article, when the corresponding author indicates that he/she wants to publish in open access, the publisher contacts the Library, Publications and Archives Service, which checks that all the requirements are met.

• For articles published in 2025, the allocation criteria are as follows, inclusively:

1. The author of the correspondence is linked to UPC at the time of submitting the article to the publisher for acceptance and publication. The link to the UPC it can be as a PDI, PTGAS, research grant or PhD student and is verified from the Identitat Digital corporate information system UPCFor these purposes, emeritus professors and staff linked to or invited to the UPC are not considered.   
2. In the article, the affiliation of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya has been incorporated into the signature of the UPC authors according to the established guidelinesThe official name of the University is, for all purposes and in all languages: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC)
3. The corresponding author has the ORCIDcode, this is reported in DRAC and is shown in FUTUR.
4. The corresponding author is linked to a UPC research group as research staff UPC. This criterion does not apply to doctoral students without a contractual relationship with the UPC when they are corresponding authors of the articles. Linking to the research group UPC is verified from DRAC o FUTUR. 

• The APC assignment for UPC research groups  and publisher is made in accordance with the following criteria based on the report: Indicators of research activities (PAR 2023) and transfer of research results (PATT 2023): 

For groups that have equal to or more than 10 PAR type 1 points for EDP (Teachers and full-time doctoral research staff):  

- American Chemical Society, Cambridge University Press i Public Library of Science: Unlimited APCs
- Springer i Wiley: 2 APCs per group
- IEEE i CSR: 1 APC per group
- AIP: they are assigned in order of arrival until the 48 APCs available for articles published by the Catalan universities participating in this agreement are exhausted: UB, UAB, UPC, UdG, URV, BC and UIB.   

For groups that have equal or more than 3 EDP and equal or more than 80 PAR type 1 points for EDP or more (both conditions): 

- American Chemical Society, Cambridge University Press i Public Library of Science: Unlimited APCs
- Springer i Wiley: 3 APC per group and editorial
- IEEE: 2 APC per group and publisher
- CSR: 1 APC per group
- AIP: they are assigned in order of arrival until the 48 APCs available for articles published by the Catalan universities participating in this agreement are exhausted: UB, UAB, UPC, UdG, URV, BC and UIB.

• The SBPA requests a copy of the article from the corresponding author in case it cannot be accessed from the publication platform.

• In case of publishing the article as part of a project, remember that many funding bodies require a license Creative Commons CC BY. Publishers already assign the CC by or let the author choose one.

• APCs are assigned in order of request on each publisher's platform, until the available bonuses included in the transformative agreement with each publisher are exhausted.  

• When no more APCs are available from a publisher, this is reported in the publisher's specific conditions section.

• By mid-2025 A review of the APCs still available will be carried out to assess whether the allocation can be increased. initial.  

• List of articles published by research staff UPC: 2021, 2022, 2023 i 2024 with assigned APCs.

• APCs assigned in 2025 by research groups from Wiley publishers, Springer, IEEE and RSC. Information from unlimited APCs (ACS, CUP, Elsevier and PLoS) is not included. It is marked in red when the research group has exhausted the available APCs. Latest update: 2025-05-13.

• En hybrid journals (these are traditional journals that offer authors the ability to make their individual articles open to everyone in exchange for paying an APC. Other articles in the same journal are accessible only by subscription (Source: MIT)).
• Relation of hybrid magazine titles of Elsevier where to publish in open access. 
• More information of the'transformative agreement with this publisher. 
• Publisher contact address for authors: support@elsevier.com

• In the transformative agreement with Elsevier, the UPC has an unlimited number of APCs.

You can consult the following resource: 

• More information (section Links of interest)

• During the month of May, Elsevier has initiated the retroconversion campaign for articles published in closed form in hybrid journals from January 1 to the beginning of April. 
• Corresponding authors are contacted frominfo.biblioteques@upc.edu to notify eligibility to open the items. They are sent instructions on how to proceed. 
• If in doubt, contact info.biblioteques@upc.edu indicating the following information: title of the journal and article, DOI, corresponding author and email.

• The agreement is to publish in hybrid journals (they are traditional journals that offer authors the possibility of making their individual articles freely accessible to everyone in exchange for paying an APC. Other articles in the same journal can only be accessed by subscription (Source: MIT)) and in journals gold, except the ACS Omega magazine.
• List of journal titles of American Chemical Society where to publish in open access.
• Summary sheet of the'transformative agreement with this publisher.
• More information.

• In the transformational agreement with the American Chemical Society, the UPC has an unlimited number of APCs.
• The agreement has been closed but APCs cannot yet be used until the contract is formalized. 
• Authors can publish in closed form. Once the agreement is finalized, the articles can be republished and opened. 

You can consult the following resources: 

• More information (section Links of interest)
• ACS Read + Publish 101: for authors

• In all the hybrid journals from IEEE Electronic Library (IEL) and IEEE All-Society Periodicals Package (ASPP). Hybrid journals are traditional journals that offer authors the possibility to make their individual articles freely accessible to everyone in exchange for payment of an APC. Other articles in the same journal can only be accessed by subscription (Source: MIT)
• Journals, transactions and magazines are included. List of hybrid included in the agreement. 
• APC's do not include excess pages or color.
• The agreement with IEEE also includes a 20% discount on the price to be paid for open publishing in all its gold magazines (all articles in open access) after verifying that the corresponding author is a research staff UPC. 
• To benefit from an APC from this publisher, the corresponding author must contact the using journal always email @upc.edu. 
• For any questions, contact info.biblioteques@upc.edu
• For gold journals, the corresponding author must accept the open publishing agreement or OA agreement at the time of submitting the article to the journal for review/acceptance. In the case of hybrid journals, this process takes place when the article has been accepted. 
• Publisher contact address: onlinesupport@ieee.org
• More info about the agreement
• Month informació

• In the transformative agreement with IEEE, the UPC initially has 98 APCs for 2025.
• Agreement in force until 2025 inclusive.
• APCs are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis to groups that have:     
  • equal to or more than 10 PAR type 1 points for EDP (Teachers and full-time doctoral research staff): 1 APC for GR
  • equal or more than 3 EDP and equal or more than 80 PAR type 1 points for EDP (both conditions): 2 APC for GR
• Currently, APCs are still available. In the event that they run out before the end of the year, this section will be reported.
   

You can consult the following resources: 

• IEEE Audit and Open Access Symposium: How to publish under the CRUE Spain Open Access agreement with IEEE (2024-04-2024)
  • Recording
  • Presentation

• IEEE Authorship workshop 
• Understanding the Publishing Process: Behind the Scenes with IEEE
• More information (section Links of interest)

• En hybrid magazines in a gold magazines.
• See the list of magazines here 

• Unlimited number of APCs

• It is necessary that the author be the corresponding author and sign with affiliation UPC

• Sessions of academics i publication portal by authors

• More information about the agreement

In the transformative agreement with Cambridge University Press, the UPC has an unlimited number of APCs.

• In gold magazines:
  • Plos One
  • PLoS Computational Biology
  • PLoS Pathogens
  • PLoS Genetics
  • PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
  • PLOS Digital Health 
  • PLOS Complex Systems
• It is necessary that the author UPC be the corresponding author and sign with affiliation UPC.
• Important: in the sending process, in the "Institution" field you must select the UPC from the dropdown
  (and not write it manually). Check the guidelines

In the transformative agreement with PLOS, the UPC has an unlimited number of APCs.