Cambridge University Press has reached a major Open Access agreement with Germany's Max Planck Society (MPG).

This builds on the ‘read and publish' agreement coordinated by the Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, BSB) with financial support from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) announced last week.

The three-year ‘read and publish' agreement will advance on the traditional subscription model, uniting reading access and open access publishing under one, centrally-administered agreement.

Authors from any of the Max Planck Society's institutes can now publish their research articles under an Open Access license in the Press's hybrid and fully Open Access journals, with the relative publishing fees paid centrally by the Max Planck Digital Library. In addition, MPG members will have access to the Press' full collection of nearly 400 journals across STM and HSS.

The MPG and BSB agreements in Germany follow similar agreements concluded between the Press and the Bibsam consortium of Swedish higher education and research institutions last November the UKB consortium of Dutch university libraries in May 2017.

Chris Bennett, Global Sales Director (Academic Publishing) at the Press, said: ‘We are delighted to have reached this agreement with the Max Planck Society, as we continue to shape a sustainable, responsible transition to full Open Access. We wholeheartedly support the benefits of that transition for global research and are determined to play a leading role on behalf of our authors, their institutions and those who fund them.'

Ralf Schimmer, Head of Information Provision at the Max Planck Digital Library, said: "This new agreement with Cambridge University Press is another important milestone in the Max Planck Society's open access transformation strategy aimed at delivering all of the benefits of an open information environment to our scientists and scholars."

Mandy Hill, Managing Director of Academic Publishing at the Press, said: ‘We have made a long-term commitment to Open Research – to making scholarly publishing more accessible, while ensuring sustainability and quality for the academic community. This latest deal supports that commitment.'

About Cambridge University Press's read and publish agreements

Cambridge University Press has made a number of Read and Publish agreements to establish Open Access publishing in Cambridge journals for publicly-financed research articles. Details of these agreements can be found on the Press's website.

About Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University's mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Its extensive peer-reviewed publishing lists comprise 50,000 titles covering academic research and professional development, as well as school-level education and English language teaching. Playing a leading role in today's international marketplace, Cambridge University Press has more than 50 offices around the globe, and it distributes its products to nearly every country in the world.

About Open Research at the Press

As the Open Research movement seeks to unlock the potential in academic research by making knowledge accessible to all; we believe that making Open Research work for our communities is crucial.  Our history, relationship with the University and not-for-profit status creates a strong position from which we can engage the community, invest in innovative solutions and play an important role in helping to shape Open Research as it evolves.

About the Max Planck Society

The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (www.mpg.de/en) is an independent, non-profit research organization. Focusing on research fields that are particularly innovative, the 83 Max Planck Institutes conduct basic research in the service of the general public in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. More than 15,000 studies by its researchers are published each year in internationally renowned scientific journals.