Open access publisher JMIR Publications, in partnership with Sweden’s academic consortium Bibsam, with sales support by Accucoms, recently announced a landmark national agreement to eliminate the burden of article processing charges (APCs) for researchers in Sweden. This transformative agreement will allow researchers at Bibsam’s 95 participating institutions, including universities, public agencies, and research institutes, to publish an unlimited number of open access articles in any JMIR Publications journals at no cost to themselves.
Sweden’s national research funders—Swedish Research Council, Formas, Forte, and Vinnova—are jointly funding this program, demonstrating their strong commitment to open access initiatives. The agreement marks a significant step forward for open access publishing and advancing open science principles, benefitting both researchers in Sweden and the global scientific research community.
“Thanks to this innovative model, financial roadblocks to publication are a thing of the past for Swedish researchers. It frees them to pursue groundbreaking discoveries with renewed focus,” said Gunther Eysenbach, founder of JMIR Publications. “We believe this approach can serve as a valuable framework for institutions and funding bodies worldwide to promote a global culture of Open Science.”
Rob Turner, Accucoms Senior Sales Manager for UK, Scandinavia, and Australia, who facilitated the agreement, said, “We are thrilled to have facilitated conversations between JMIR Publications and Bibsam to reach this ground-breaking agreement which will play a key role in making scientific research in Sweden open and accessible.”
“The agreement between Bibsam and JMIR Publications, enabled through the collaborative efforts of Swedish research funders, further strengthens the priority in Sweden to advance open science. It aligns with a focus on high-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy, and equitable scholarly publishing while also simplifying administrative procedures”, said Anna Lundén, Department Director for Collaboration, National Library of Sweden.
Effective through the end of 2025, this partnership not only reflects a growing demand for transparent and seamless publishing models but also actively contributes to the open access movement. By eliminating APCs for eligible authors, this initiative directly aligns with the broader push to make scientific research more accessible and equitable worldwide.
