Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam has signed a new read-and-publish agreement with the publisher American Chemical Society (ACS).
The agreement provides Dutch researchers with reading access to the peer-reviewed content in ACS’s journal portfolio and enables them to publish 100% open access in all hybrid journals.
The agreement was reached following difficult negotiations, during which ACS was unwilling for a long time to meet the minimum requirements set by the Dutch consortium. The agreement runs from 2026 through 2028 and applies to ACS’s hybrid journal portfolio. To find out in which ACS journals you can publish open access with a 100% discount, you can use the VU Journal Publishing Guide.
Under this agreement, a maximum of 542 open access articles per year can be published free of charge. This means that the available publication discounts may be exhausted before the end of each year. Researchers who would like to be kept informed about the availability of the discount can register for a “notify-me service.” This service provides updates on when the maximum number of open access publications with a publisher is expected to be reached and when the limit has actually been reached.
Under the new ACS agreement, researchers will publish their work by default under a CC BY licence, which offers the academic community the broadest possibilities for reuse.
Unfortunately, articles that were published earlier in 2026 while the new agreement was still being negotiated are not eligible for the 100% open access discount.
For more information about the agreement and its conditions, please consult openaccess.nl or contact the VU Open Access Team at openaccess@vu.nl.
