- IReL has achieved success with transformative open access agreements, reducing costs while allowing all Irish researchers to publish open access without author-facing charges. Over 40% of Irish researchers' output is currently published through these agreements. - Challenges include increasing costs per article as output grows, balancing open access policy goals with researcher needs and subscription access demands, and establishing fair and transparent open access publishing prices. - Looking ahead, Ireland's goal is 100% open access by 2030 through a balanced approach, and IReL will support more sustainable open access business models like community-run diamond open access journals.

1. Riding two horses: the successes, the challenges and
the future of IReL’s transformative open access
agreements
Jack Hyland, IReL
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Circus_performer_riding_two_horses_at_once_LCCN2003655701.
jpg

2. IReL 2020 spend

3. Transformative agreements
• Read access and OA publishing services in one agreement
• Achieves substantial reductions in Read fees and/or Publish
• Everyone in an institution can publish OA - no author-facing charges
• Intent of gradually and permanently shifting away from subscription access

4. Achievements

5. ESAC Marketplace
• 21 Irish TAs registered with ESAC
• Ranked 6/28 countries by # of articles published OA

6. 2021 results (interim)
• IReL member corresponding authors publish avg 6,694 articles per
year.
• 2,858 articles published in Irish TAs = 43% of output

7. IReL members’ output by publisher: top 50
(92% of output)
Included in an OA
agreement
No OA agreement (yet)

8. IReL 2020 spend

9. IReL 2021 spend

12. Challenges

13. IReL
Read
Publish
funding
policy
Cost
distribution
workflows
Increasing
costs per
article
Increasing
numbers of
articles
data

14. The Future

15. The Future
“By 2030 Ireland will have implemented a sustainable and inclusive
course for achieving 100% open access to research publications.”
TAs “should be considered transitional and form part of a broader
strategy that encompasses and promotes a diversity of business
models”
Draft National Action Plan for Open Research: 2022-2030

16. Future OA support
Balancing:
• Policy (NORF Action Plan,
UNESCO, Plan S)
• Where researchers are publishing
• Value for money
• Demand for subscription access

17. Unsub

18. Fair and transparent prices for OA

19. Diamond OA
• “A wide archipelago of relatively small
journals serving diverse communities”
• Scaling funding for Diamond
• Open Access eXchange model (Hyland,
Kouker, Zaitsev 2020)
o LYRASIS Open Access Community Investment
Program
o Jisc open access community

20. The future