IEEE and the University of Illinois Begin Open Access Agreement

Enables researchers to open access publish and access more than 5 million documents in the IEEE Xplore® digital library  

Piscataway, N.J. – 13 May 2020 – IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, today announced it has entered an Open Access Read and Publish agreement with the University of Illinois, one of the leading institutions for engineering research. This marks the first Read and Publish agreement for the University of Illinois with a major publisher and also the first agreement of this type for IEEE in North America.

With this new agreement, researchers will have access to IEEE’s premier collection of journals, conferences, and standards via the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. The university’s authors are also able to publish articles via open access in nearly 200 leading journals and magazines published by IEEE, making them instantly available and free to read by the general public. In today’s environment, it is important for researchers to continue to innovate, and that they are provided with the resources and publishing options they need to do so.

Under the terms of the three-year agreement, the costs of accessing subscription content and the article processing charges (APCs) required to publish in open access journals will be rolled into one amount paid in advance by the university, making the process easier and more convenient for authors. Both the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and Chicago campuses are part of this content agreement.

To develop the model, IEEE and the University of Illinois reviewed the open access publishing goals of the institution and examined the historical research output from the university’s authors. The resulting model was then structured to optimize participation in IEEE open access options by the university’s authors, as the cost of APCs that have been bundled into the Read and Publish agreement have been discounted based on the university’s publishing volume. This has a direct benefit to the university as the more articles the institution publishes via open access, the greater the discount they receive.

This agreement will complement a number of open access and open science initiatives being pursued by the University of Illinois’ libraries and is a key element of the university’s newly established Discovery Partner’s Institute (DPI). DPI is a world-class, collaborative, multi-institution center in Chicago for technology talent development and applied R&D. Bruce Hajek, head of the department of electrical and computer engineering at UIUC, said, “The University of Illinois is proud to support open access, to promote excellence in scholarship and universal access to innovations in engineering, and it hopes to inspire others to contribute to this important common good.”

William Mischo, head of the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center, helped coordinate the agreement with a team of university librarians, and had this to add: “This agreement will allow the groundbreaking research, educational activities, and innovation generated by the University of Illinois faculty to be open upon publication to the State of Illinois and to the world.”

A not-for-profit organization, IEEE is the global leader in electrical engineering and related fields, publishing the top-cited journals in many fields including electrical engineering, computer hardware, telecommunications, artificial intelligence, and many other technologies. IEEE has expanded its open access program and launched many new fully open access titles in fields such as computing, telecommunications, biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, and more.

“IEEE is proud to announce its agreement with the University of Illinois,” said Stephen Welby, IEEE Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. “With this new agreement, University of Illinois researchers now have new ways to publish the results of their research in the leading open access publications in their fields and maintain access to all the published research in IEEE Xplore. We look forward to working with other institutions to create innovative agreements to share the work of leading researchers with the global research community to further scientific and engineering progress and support economic development.”

To learn more about the IEEE open access options for authors and institutions, please visit open.ieee.org.

About IEEE
IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice in a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers, and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power, and consumer electronics. Learn more.

About the University of Illinois
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University of Illinois system and was founded in 1867.  The U of I System serves the people of Illinois through a shared commitment to excellence in teaching, research, public service, economic development, and healthcare. Faculty, staff, and students share their knowledge, expertise, and resources with residents in every corner of the state through public service and outreach programs.

The University of Illinois at Chicago is a major research university located in the heart of one of the world’s greatest cities. Ranked 23rd in the nation among public universities by the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education, UIC is Chicago’s largest and only public research university with 33,390 students, and an integral part of the educational, technological and cultural fabric of Chicago. UIC is recognized as one of the most ethnically rich and culturally diverse universities in America. With 16 academic colleges, including seven health science colleges, and the UIC John Marshall Law School, UIC prepares professionals in all areas of study and contributes to the economic development of Chicago and the state of Illinois.