The agreement explicitly permits use of licensed Taylor & Francis content with AI technologies for non-commercial research and education, subject to appropriate protections.

Australian and New Zealand universities have secured a landmark three-year open access (OA) agreement with Taylor & Francis, marking the first concrete outcome from unprecedented cross-Tasman collaboration.

The Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL), representing the region’s university libraries, finalised the deal alongside Universities Australia and Universities New Zealand—Te Pōkai Tara, with coverage commencing 1 January 2026.

Comprehensive Publishing Rights

The agreement guarantees that all research articles by corresponding authors at participating institutions will be published OA across Taylor & Francis and Routledge journals, both hybrid and fully OA titles, without individual article processing charges (APCs). This eliminates author-facing fees and simplifies workflow for researchers navigating increasingly complex publishing landscapes.

The deal follows a sector-wide negotiation framework established in July 2025 to address unsustainable costs, with combined spending across the four major publishers exceeding NZ$30 million annually for New Zealand universities alone.

Innovative Funding Models for HSS Journals

Central to the partnership is the expansion of Taylor & Francis’ Collective Pathway to Open Publishing (CPOP) model. This hybrid funding mechanism combines institutional OA agreement payments with subscription income to convert entire journal volumes to OA – one year at a time – without APCs.

The model particularly benefits humanities and social sciences (HSS) journals, where traditional APC-based conversion has proved unviable.

Following successful Nordic pilots in 2025, several Australasian-focused HSS titles, including the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, will transition to full OA for their 2026 volumes, extending fee-free publishing opportunities to researchers globally.

AI Provisions and Safeguards

The agreement explicitly permits use of licensed Taylor & Francis content with AI technologies for non-commercial research and education, subject to appropriate protections. This enables academics to deploy AI tools for tasks such as summarising articles for teaching or generating discussion questions, reflecting pragmatic recognition of evolving research practices.

The View From The Beach

While the Taylor & Francis deal represents a major victory, negotiations with other publishers remain fluid. CAUL has paused talks with Elsevier after failing to agree on pricing and gold OA inclusion, though the door remains open for re-engagement.

Agreements with Wiley and Springer Nature are reportedly progressing positively, with announcements anticipated shortly. The unified approach – overseen by the CAUL Open Access Negotiation Strategy Committee – signals a decisive shift from fragmented institutional bargaining to collective sectoral power.

Industry Response

Arthur Smith, CAUL Content Procurement Associate Director, praised Taylor & Francis’ collaborative approach, noting the publisher’s “willingness to listen and commitment to meeting sector needs.” Alex Robinson, Taylor & Francis Chief Commercial Officer, described CAUL as “an essential partner in sustaining and innovating open research,” while Professor Iain Martin, Deakin University Vice-Chancellor and COANSC Chair, highlighted the agreement as proof that “true partnership between universities and publishers delivers outcomes benefiting researchers and the broader community.” The deal sets a precedent for sustainable, transparent OA transformation across the region.

This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.