The transition to Open Access (OA) is no longer a distant goal; it is a rapidly accelerating reality. As we navigate this shift, the ESAC (Efficiency and Standards for Academic Collecting) Initiative is a useful compass, tracking the rise of Transformative Agreements (TAs) globally.

I had a great time in Austin at the ER&L Fest. The longer I’m in the position of Institutional Partnerships Lead at JMIR, the more I enjoy working with librarians. As a group, they are friendly, thoughtful, and ask great questions. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to me - my mother was a public librarian and I spent many, many hours among the book stacks of her workplaces.

As I am preparing for my trip to Austin for the ER and L conference, I am thinking a lot about the conversations I have had with librarians over the past year, especially at Charleston in November. The consistent theme of each conversation was uncertainty—often budgetary, but also regulatory and administrative. Everywhere, libraries are under pressure to do more with less, leaving many to ask: how to manage library budget cuts while transitioning to open access? It’s clear that librarians are no longer just managing collections;  they’re navigating a total systemic shift.

If you were in Charleston this past November, you know what I mean when I say the air was thick with purpose, and a little bit of worry. The Charleston Conference is always a place where librarians and publishers come together to discuss the tough questions facing our industry, and this year highlighted that scholarly communication is evolving against a backdrop of economic, technological, and policy-driven uncertainty.

The landscape of scholarly publishing has grown increasingly complex, and academic librarians managing collections face mounting pressure to navigate this complexity wisely. With library budgets stretched thin, multiple business models competing for resources, and the ever-present threat of predatory publishers exploiting the open access movement, the responsibility of vetting journals has never been more critical, or more challenging.

Librarians play a critical role in supporting their institutional researchers. A critical area of support is with open science mandates, or practices that prioritize openness, transparency, and collaboration throughout the research cycle. Research that follows open science practices carries many benefits, including: 

At JMIR Publications, we believe in making open access (OA) publishing as seamless and accessible as possible. That's why we're proud to partner with institutions like ZB MED to implement transformative publishing agreements that benefit the entire research community.

(TORONTO, September 22, 2025) JMIR Publications, a leading open-access digital health research publisher, and Iowa State Universityare pleased to announce that they have modified their long-standing partnership from a multi-payor model to JMIR’s Flat-Fee Unlimited Open Access Publishing model.

(Toronto, September 18, 2025) JMIR Publications, a leading open-access digital health research publisher, and Jisc, the United Kingdom's not-for-profit organization providing digital services for research and education, are pleased to announce a significant expansion of their Flat-Fee Unlimited Open Access Partnership. Effective August 1, 2025, 6 new research institutions – the University of Manchester, University of Nottingham, Newcastle University, University of Leeds, University of Southampton, and University of Warwick – have joined this collaborative agreement.