The new agreement between the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and UC Libraries provides funding for authors to publish open access in ASM’s six primary research subscription-based journals for three years.

Authors will not incur APCs. Standard page charges and supplemental material fees will be discounted. The corresponding author needs to be affiliated with UCSC (or another UC campus). Articles need to contain original research.

The included ASM journals are: 

• Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
• Applied and Environmental Microbiology
• Infection and Immunity
• Journal of Bacteriology
• Journal of Clinical Microbiology
• Journal of Virology

Please see the frequently asked questions about our ASM agreement for more information.

Background
Funding for open access publishing is included as part of UC’s subscription to ASM journals. The agreement follows the “Subscribe-to-Open” (S2O) model, under which the accessibility of ASM’s previously subscriber-only content depends on continued support from subscribing institutions. ASM establishes a minimum sustainability target each year to fund the journals. If the target is met, that year’s content will be made open access. If the target is not met, the content will remain available only to subscribers. This framework provides ASM a practical path to converting these journals to open access without relying on article processing charges or institutional goodwill.

If you have any questions about publishing with ASM, please reach out to the University Library at research@library.ucsc.edu.