Illinois State University authors and Milner Library hit an exciting milestone with the publication of English Studies doctoral student Audrey T. Heffers’s article “Imaginary Margins: Disability Poetics & Reinventing the Page” in New Writing, the 100th article accepted and published under open access agreements negotiated by Milner Library. Authors from all colleges have benefited from these agreements, and over 60 students have authored or contributed to works published since the first agreement was signed in 2021.  

Publishing open access removes barriers for readers and increases the visibility of scholars’ work, benefiting researchers at every stage of their career and promoting equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in research.

“Accessibility helps us to think about who can participate in particular spaces and particular conversations,” Heffers says. “I consider access in terms of disability, but also in terms of how we can encourage more engagement between academia and the public; open access scholarship is key to this goal.” 

Milner Library currently offers publishing support under agreements with ACM, ACS, Annual Reviews, Cambridge University Press, Company of Biologists, IOP, Microbiology Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, Sage Publications, and Taylor & Francis. With article processing charges (APCs) averaging upwards of $3,000, open access publishing is often cost-prohibitive for scholars without institutional support. To date, Milner’s agreements have covered APCs totaling over $350,000 for the ISU community.  

“This is a really fantastic program,” said Professor of Psychology Dr. Jeffrey Wagman. “These are journals that I would publish in anyway, and now my students and I have the opportunity to make our work available without a paywall barrier. This is, of course, beneficial to me and my students in making our work more visible to a larger audience. But it is also a large step forward in promoting equity and transparency in scientific research.”

Heffers adds, “As a disabled scholar working at the intersections of creative writing studies and disability studies, I appreciate Milner’s dedication to making scholarship more easily available to as many readers as possible.” 

Works published open access via these agreements are deposited in a collection in ISU ReD on behalf of the authors, though authors are invited to deposit works not published open access to increase the availability of their scholarship. The Scholarly Communication Team is available to answer any questions about ISU ReD and open access agreements and may be reached at isured@IllinoisState.edu.