Qatar National Library, in collaboration with Oxford University Press (OUP), has announced a new, three-year ‘Read-and-Publish’ agreement that will provide institutions in Qatar with online access to OUP’s full collection of peer-reviewed journals and open access publishing for non-profit research institutions.
The Read-and-Publish agreement comes as part of the Library’s commitment to sharing knowledge and information with the public and is the first of its kind for OUP in Qatar. The agreement will further allow researchers at participating institutions in Qatar to publish their research open access in all OUP hybrid and fully open access journals, thus giving it wider and increased access, citation and usage.
Speaking about the agreement, Milan Vasiljevic, Manager of Electronic Resources Management & Licensing at Qatar National Library, said: “We are excited to collaborate with OUP on this important agreement to strengthen and enrich the Library’s journal collections of research content. The agreement comes as part of the Library’s commitment to transition from subscription-based agreements to open access ones.
“This agreement with OUP will further expand the range of journals for authors to publish on open access and brings us a step closer to achieving our goal of making all research output completed in Qatar open access,” he added.
Graham Grant, OUP Sales Director: Asia, Middle East & Africa Academic, commented: “The agreement will have a positive impact on Qatar’s research output and support its academic community in developing and publishing high-quality research. We look forward to working with Qatar National Library and its members and are excited to see the output of the partnership, which undoubtedly will help drive our mission to create world-class academic and educational resources and make them available as widely as possible.”
The Library is a leader in open access in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and is working towards making a global impact. The Read-and-Publish transformative agreement with OUP will enable the Library to support open access publishing for articles by authors affiliated with Qatar-based institutions. It is also taking part in various international open access initiatives, such as INTACT’s Open APC project, Open Access 2020 and contributing to the development of international open access principles through the International Federation of Information and Library Associations. The Library is also on the board of the Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services.
