(Toronto and Oakland, April 29, 2026) JMIR Publications, a leading open-access digital health research publisher, and the University of California (UC) are pleased to announce an extension of their institutional membership agreement. Managed through the California Digital Library (CDL), this renewal officially extends the partnership through December 31, 2026, reinforcing a shared, long-term commitment to advancing open science.
The extended agreement maintains the highly successful multi-payer model which has supported the open access publication of more than 450 articles since 2021. Under this arrangement, the UC Libraries automatically pay the first $1,000 of the Article Processing Fee (APF) for any accepted article where the corresponding author is affiliated with a UC campus. Authors who do not have research funds available to pay the remainder may request full coverage of the APF from the UC Libraries.
"The University of California is committed to making open access publishing sustainable and equitable for all UC researchers," said Miranda Bennett, Director of Shared Collections at CDL. "By extending this multi-payer agreement, we continue to lower the barrier to open access publishing for all UC authors who publish with JMIR Publications, while providing critical full fee coverage for any author who lacks external grant funding. This ensures that financial constraints do not prevent our researchers from sharing their scholarship freely with the world.”
"We’re proud to continue JMIR’s relationship with the University of California,” said Dennis O’Brien, VP Communications and Partnerships at JMIR Publications. “This extension serves as a practical and successful example for collaboration between libraries and fully open access independent publishers, creating a sustainable model that benefits the entire academic community."
About the University of California Libraries and Open Access at UC
Individually and collectively, the University of California Libraries provide access to the world’s knowledge for the UC campuses and the communities they serve, directly supporting UC’s missions of teaching, research and public service. Open access publishing supports the mission of the University of California by transmitting knowledge more broadly and facilitating new discoveries that build on the University’s research and scholarly work. UC generates nearly 10 percent of all research output in the United States; half of which is eligible for open access publishing under one of the university’s 21 transformative agreements and open access partnerships. Learn more about open access at UC.
About JMIR Publications
JMIR Publications is a leading independent open access publisher of digital health research and a champion of open science. With a focus on author advocacy and research amplification, JMIR Publications partners with researchers to advance their careers and maximize the impact of their work. As a technology organization with publishing at its core, JMIR provides innovative tools and resources that go beyond traditional publishing, supporting researchers at every step of the dissemination process. Their portfolio features a range of peer-reviewed journals, including the renowned Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Media Contact:
Dennis O’Brien, Vice President, Communications & Partnerships JMIR Publications communications@jmir.org +1 416-583-2040
The content of this communication is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, published by JMIR Publications, is properly cited.