UMass Chan and JMIR Publications Launch Open Access Partnership to Remove Publishing Fees for Digital Health Researchers
A new publishing agreement between JMIR Publications and the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School is set to give UMass Chan researchers uncapped access to Gold Open Access publishing across more than 30 digital health journals. The partnership, announced in Toronto and Worcester on August 6, 2026, replaces individual Article Processing Fees with a centrally funded institutional model designed to make research immediately available to readers worldwide.
The agreement is supported by the Lamar Soutter Library at UMass Chan and applies to eligible articles accepted between July 1, 2026, and June 30, 2027. Under the arrangement, corresponding authors affiliated with UMass Chan will be able to publish qualifying research without paying article-level charges. Instead of requiring each research team to identify funds for publication after peer review, the institution will cover the cost through a single subscription fee negotiated with JMIR Publications.
Article Processing Fees are commonly used by Gold Open Access journals to finance editorial operations, peer review administration, digital production, online hosting, indexing, archiving, and long-term preservation. Although the model allows readers to access published studies without subscription barriers, the fees can create a significant obstacle for researchers whose grants do not include dedicated publishing funds. By shifting payment from individual authors to an institutional agreement, the UMass Chan partnership is intended to separate the ability to publish from the availability of discretionary research funds.
The arrangement is especially relevant to digital health, a rapidly expanding field that combines medicine with data science, software engineering, artificial intelligence, telehealth, wearable sensors, human-computer interaction, and health services research. Studies in these areas often produce evidence with immediate implications for clinicians, patients, public health agencies, and technology developers. Making such research freely accessible can accelerate the movement of findings from laboratories and hospitals into clinical evaluation, policy discussions, and real-world digital tools.
JMIR Publications describes the agreement as part of its broader Institutional Partnership Program, which offers organizations centralized support for publishing in its Gold Open Access portfolio. The publisher’s journals include the Journal of Medical Internet Research and more than 30 other peer-reviewed titles focused on digital medicine and connected health. The uncapped nature of the agreement means that eligible publication volume will not be limited by a fixed number of covered articles during the contract period, potentially giving researchers greater flexibility as projects move through peer review and acceptance.
“We are proud to welcome UMass Chan Medical School to our expanding network of institutional partners,” said Dennis O’Brien, vice president of communications and partnerships at JMIR Publications. He said the agreement would reduce financial friction for researchers and characterized the decision by the Lamar Soutter Library as a commitment to a more diverse and equitable open science ecosystem. The statement also emphasized JMIR’s position as an independent, scholar-led publisher, distinguishing the partnership from arrangements built around traditional subscription publishing.
For UMass Chan authors, the practical effect will begin when a manuscript is accepted for publication. Eligibility will generally depend on the author’s institutional affiliation and corresponding-author status, as well as the journal and article type covered by the agreement. Once an article meets the publisher’s requirements, the institutional arrangement can be used in place of a conventional APF. Peer review standards, editorial assessment, and scientific criteria remain separate from the financial mechanism, meaning that the agreement does not guarantee acceptance and does not alter the need for methodological rigor.
Rebecca Gerber, electronic resources librarian at the Lamar Soutter Library, said the partnership would allow the library to support faculty and students more proactively. Centralized funding, she noted, can protect academic freedom by ensuring that researchers are not forced to select a journal solely because they can afford its publication charges. It also supports immediate public access to UMass Chan research, an important consideration for studies involving health outcomes, clinical interventions, population-level trends, and emerging technologies whose value may depend on rapid dissemination.
UMass Chan is one of five campuses in the University of Massachusetts system and includes the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing. Its wider research and service structure also includes ForHealth Consulting and MassBiologics, described by the institution as the only nonprofit, US Food and Drug Administration-licensed manufacturer of vaccines, biologics, and viral-vector gene therapies in the United States. Through the new publishing agreement, research from this broad medical and biomedical community may reach readers without paywalls, potentially increasing discoverability, citation, reuse, and collaboration.
The partnership reflects a larger transformation in scientific communication. Open Access publishing removes subscription barriers, while institutional agreements attempt to address the corresponding financial barriers faced by authors. As universities, funders, and publishers experiment with new models, the central question is whether research can become both freely readable and broadly publishable without concentrating costs on institutions or individual scientists. The UMass Chan–JMIR agreement offers one institutional response, linking a medical school’s library budget to a defined period of publishing access in a field where rapid, unrestricted exchange of evidence is increasingly important.
Subject of Research: Open Access publishing and digital health research dissemination
Article Title: UMass Chan and JMIR Publications Launch Open Access Partnership to Remove Publishing Fees for Digital Health Researchers
News Publication Date: August 6, 2026
Web References: JMIR Publications, https://jmirpublications.com/ ; JMIR Publications on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/company/jmir-publications
Image Credits: JMIR Publications
Keywords: Open Access, digital health, medical publishing, Article Processing Fees, JMIR Publications, UMass Chan Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, Gold Open Access, scientific communication, academic publishing
