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

• Thus, budgets previously earmarked for "pay to access" allow you to gradually move to "pay to publish in open access." Therefore, the transformative agreements allow to publish in open access a part of what the research staff of the institution publishes in the journals of a publishing house and in the long run, in its entirety. 

• 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 Science. Subsequently, a committee of the CRUE, the CSIC and the university libraries have negotiated transformative agreements with the Elsevier publishing houses, Springer, Wiley, the American Chemical Society (ACS), the American Institute of Physics (AIP), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).
• The agreements are valid from 2021 and until 2024. In the case of the American Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Chemistry, until 2025.
• As an individual the UPC has signed a transformative agreement for 2024 with the publishing Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

• Each publisher provides a certain number of APCs in the form of vouchers or a certain amount to publish in immediate open access. It also determines in which journals APCs can be used by indicating 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 2024, 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 UPC. For these purposes, the staff linked to or invited to the UPC not considered related personnel.  
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 guidelines.
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 2022) and transfer of research results (PATT 2022): 

For groups that have equal to or more than 10 PAR type 1 points for EDP (Teachers and full-time doctoral research staff):  
- Elsevier Springer, Wiley and American Chemical Society: 2 APC per group and publisher.
- IEEE and RSC: 1 APC per group
- AIP: they are assigned in order of arrival until the 47 APCs available for articles published by the 7 Catalan universities participating in this agreement (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): 
- Elsevier Springer and Wiley: 4 APC per group and publisher
- American Chemical Society and IEEE: 2 APC per group and publisher
- CSR: 1 APC per group
- AIP: they are assigned in order of arrival until the 47 APCs available for articles published by the 7 Catalan universities participating in this agreement (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.

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

• When a publisher does not have more APCs, it is reported in the section of specific conditions of the publisher.

• In mid-2024, the allocation of APCs by groups and publishers has been revised. There are no changes to the allocation made at the beginning of the year. 

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

• 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)).
• The transformative agreement with Elsevier also includes a 10% discount on the price to be paid for open publishing in gold magazines of this publisher, after verifying that the corresponding author is a research staff UPC. In gold magazines all articles are open access. 
• Relation of hybrid magazine titles of Elsevier where to publish in open access. 
• Journals according to the subject.
• Summary sheet of the'transformative agreement with this publisher. 
• More information
• Publisher contact address for authors: support@elsevier.com

• In the transformative agreement with Elsevier, the UPC initially has 204 APCs for 2024.
• Elsevier APC allocation by UPC Research Groups:
  • Groups that have equal to or more than 10 PAR type 1 points for EDP (Teachers and full-time doctoral research staff): 2 APC.
  • Groups that have equal or more than 3 EDP and equal or more than 80 PAR type 1 points per EDP (both conditions): 4 APC.
• 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 resource: 

• More information (section Links of interest)

• The agreement is to publish in hybrid journals (these are traditional journals that offer authors the ability to make their individual articles freely accessible to everyone in exchange for paying an APC. Other articles in the same journal are subscription-only (Source: MIT)) and in gold magazines, 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 initially has 11 APCs for 2024.
• Allocation of 2 American Chemical Society APCs by UPC research groups that have:
  • Equal to or more than 10 PAR type 1 points for EDP (Teachers and full-time doctoral research staff).  
  • Equal or more than 3 EDP and equal or more than 80 PAR type 1 points per EDP (both conditions).
• Currently, the UPC still has APCs available for 2024. 

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)
• They include meurnals, transactions and magazines. 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
• Text deeeee about the agreement
• Month informació

• In the transformative agreement with IEEE, the UPC initially has 45 APCs for 2024.
• 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
  • About the Observatory

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

• To all hybrid edited by SPIE
• It is necessary that the author be the corresponding author and sign with affiliation UPC
• This agreement does not allow you to enjoy an APC with the proceedings
• Unlimited number of APCs
• More information within each magazine