Ball State University Libraries Establishes Open Access Publishing Agreement with Cambridge University Press

Topics: Faculty, Research, University Libraries

September 10, 2025

Ball State University Libraries has signed a new open access publishing agreement with Cambridge University Press, significantly expanding opportunities for Ball State scholars to share their research broadly-without financial barriers.

Under this agreement, Ball State-affiliated authors-including faculty, staff, and graduate students-who serve as the corresponding author on a manuscript accepted to a Cambridge University Press journal can now publish their work open access without paying individual article processing charges (APCs). The agreement covers more than 437 peer-reviewed journals published by Cambridge.

"This partnership represents a major step forward in our efforts to support research visibility and remove financial barriers for Ball State authors," said Dr. Nancy Abashian, dean of University Libraries. "It aligns directly with our mission to champion access, collaboration, and innovation in scholarly communication."

The new model integrates access to Cambridge's library of scholarly content with the ability for authors to publish their work openly-reducing costs and increasing the reach and impact of research. Ball State students, faculty, and staff will continue to enjoy full access to Cambridge journals under the terms of the agreement.

The partnership supports several University Libraries priorities:

• Promoting Open Access: Publicly funded research should be publicly available. This agreement enables global access to Ball State research.
• Lowering Publishing Costs: By covering APCs through the institutional contract, the agreement removes a major financial hurdle for authors.
• Enhancing Research Impact: Open access content is more visible, cited more frequently, and available to wider audiences.

No additional application or payment is required from authors. Eligibility is verified during the publication process.

This agreement is part of a broader strategy by University Libraries to support sustainable publishing models and expand the public impact of Ball State research. It also builds momentum toward future agreements with other academic publishers.

For more information, visit the University Libraries blog or contact Emma Giles, scholarly communication and affordable learning librarian at Ball State, at [email protected].