WSU Libraries Expands Cambridge University Press Journal Access, Open Access Publishing

By Trevor Bond

WSU Libraries recently announced a major expansion in their Cambridge University Press holdings beginning this year. The libraries will increase their Cambridge University Press journal subscriptions from 10 titles in 2025 to more than 420 titles, dramatically enhancing access to high-quality research for faculty and students across disciplines.

Cambridge University Press publishes more than 420 peer-reviewed academic journals spanning humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. The new agreement ensures that WSU researchers will have comprehensive access to this world-class content.

In addition to expanded journal access, the agreement includes unlimited open access (OA) publishing provisions. This means WSU authors can publish their research in Cambridge University Press journals without barriers, making their work freely available to readers worldwide.

“Access to Cambridge University Press journals provides important resources for myself and my students for conducting research and publishing,” said Rachel Horowitz, assistant professor in WSU’s Department of Anthropology. “The preeminent archaeology journals for scholars conducting research in the Americas are published through Cambridge University Press, and the ability to publish open access in these journals will allow our research to reach a greater number of colleagues and have a greater impact on the field.”

By purchasing the package through the nonprofit Northwest library consortium Orbis Cascade Alliance, WSU Libraries will realize significant savings of more than $50,000 from an earlier read-only agreement cancelled in 2020, according to Trevor Bond, WSU Libraries’ dean, maximizing the impact of library resources while supporting faculty research and global knowledge sharing.

“I am pleased that we will be able to add these journals to our collections to support faculty in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences,” he said. “The unlimited open access provisions of the agreement will help WSU researchers share their research with those who otherwise lack access to an academic library.”

The transformative agreement underscores WSU Libraries’ commitment to advancing scholarship, supporting faculty research, and promoting open access to knowledge and is one of a growing number of OA agreements with major scholarly publishers, including Wiley and Elsevier, Bond added.

For more information, please see the library guide to OA publishing or contact Joel Cummings, WSU Libraries’ head of collection development.