Brill Journals SHEDL Read and Publish
Framework Description
Brill Journals SHEDL Read and Publish is an agreement let by Jisc and made available to APUC member institutions. It gives members of the Scottish Higher Education Digital Library (SHEDL) access to Brill's academic journals and lets their researchers publish open access in Brill titles under a read and publish model. It ends on 31 December 2026, with no extension option.
Context & Use Case
SHEDL is a consortium of Scottish university libraries that licenses e-journals collectively. Library acquisitions and open access teams use this agreement so that reading access and open access publishing are covered by one negotiated payment, rather than separate subscriptions and individual article charges. As it is with a single publisher, there are no call-off competitions.
Scope of Services
Read access to Brill's journal collection Open access publishing in Brill journals for authors at participating institutions Management and administration of the read and publish arrangement
Lots
See framework link
Who Can Apply
This is a publisher-specific agreement, so other suppliers cannot apply to it. It is mainly relevant to academic publishers and subscription agents interested in similar read and publish deals with Scottish or UK universities, which Jisc negotiates. With the term ending on 31 December 2026, check whether Jisc is renewing it.
Buyer Benefits
Libraries value read and publish deals because subscription access and open access publishing are covered together, helping researchers meet funder open access requirements without extra article charges. Negotiating once through Jisc for all SHEDL members gives institutions stronger collective terms than individual libraries could secure, and saves each one a separate negotiation.
Next Steps
Renewal is a matter for Brill and Jisc ahead of 31 December 2026. Other publishers should look at Jisc's licensing programme and read and publish agreements for routes into UK universities, and at APUC's framework list for Scottish library contracts. Have usage data and open access output figures ready for any negotiation.
How Athena Can Help
There is no open competition for this agreement, so Athena's role would be helping publishers and content suppliers pursue the library contracts that are competed. Our public sector bidding consultancy can help you decide which library and content tenders are worth the effort.
We then identify suitable library frameworks and handle applications to relevant frameworks, and when a tender is live our bid writing team prepares responses written to the evaluation criteria.
