This page from the Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright explains the basics of Creative Commons licenses, including considerations for Penn State affiliates. Authors publishing on an open access basis often have a choice of Creative Commons licenses for their article, especially when an APC is paid or the APC is covered by one of PSU's agreements.

This article from College and Research Libraries News provides an introduction to transformative agreements.

The Penn State University Libraries subscribe to the "ACS All Publications Package," so Penn State authors are eligible for a discount of $250 on open access publishing in transformative/hybrid journals. (Au journals are not included.) Discounts are also available to ACS members and authors who choose to delay open access to their articles.

The Penn State Libraries is a subscriber to the following Bioscientifica journals: Journal of Endocrinology, Journal of Molecular Endocrinology, European Journal of Endocrinology, and Reproduction. This entitles Penn State authors to a discount on APCs at those journals.

Penn State corresponding authors can publish open access through Cambridge University Press (CUP) at no additional charge, as part of the Libraries' 2021–2023 agreement with Cambridge. This applies to research articles, review articles, rapid communications, brief reports and case reports. A small number (less than 10%) of Cambridge journals do not have an open access option and are excluded from the agreement.

To take advantage of this deal, list your Penn State affiliation when you submit the article. There is no code to enter. Penn State corresponding authors publishing in eligible journals will automatically be offered free OA publishing. Contact openaccess@psu.edu if you have trouble.

This agreement has not yet been renewed past December 31, 2023. However, publishing in these journals without charge will remain in place while the BTAA and CUP continue negotiations in January.

Penn State corresponding authors can publish open access in eligible IOP journals, including most of the gold and hybrid OA journals, with no additional charge. Excluded journals are American Astronomical Society (AAS) journals, some society titles that do not allow OA publishing, fully OA journals that do not charge OA fees, and translated and conference titles.

To take advantage of this deal, list your Penn State affiliation when you submit the article. There is no code to enter. Penn State corresponding authors publishing in eligible journals will automatically be offered free OA publishing for primary research articles accepted between January 1st, 2023, and December 31st, 2025. Contact openaccess@psu.edu if you have trouble.

List of eligible Institute of Physics (IOP) journals in which Penn State corresponding authors may publish unlimited OA primary research articles. Please see the above Institute of Physics OA deal description for more information.

The Penn State Libraries is a Library Shareholder in the journal, so the entire APC is waived for Penn State authors.

Penn State corresponding authors can publish open access in all hybrid and fully open access Microbiology Society journals at no additional charge, as part of Penn State’s participation in the 2023-2025 BTAA – Microbiology Society read & publish contract.

To take advantage of this deal, list your Penn State affiliation and Penn State email address when you submit your article. There is no code to enter. Penn State corresponding authors whose articles are accepted in a Microbiology Society journal between January 1st, 2023, and December 31st, 2025, will automatically be offered free OA publishing. Contact openaccess@psu.edu if you have trouble.

The Penn State Libraries subscribe to several journals from Portland Press, which entitles Penn State authors to a discount on the open access fee with any Portland Press journal.

PNAS levies page charges for all articles, and all PNAS articles are free-to-read within six months of publication. The Penn State Libraries have a site license to PNAS, so Penn State authors who opt to pay a surcharge for immediate open access publication receive a discount on that surcharge. The discount does not apply to regular page charges.

Penn State has open access agreements with PLOS covering all PLOS journals for 2022-2023 and renewed for 2024. There is no fee for open access publication with PLOS if the corresponding author is at Penn State. For contributing authors, the agreement provides a 25% discount on the non-member fee that is levied by PLOS's "Community Action" titles (PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation) when the corresponding author is not at a member institution such as Penn State.

To take advantage of this deal, list your Penn State affiliation when you submit the article. There is no code to enter. Penn State corresponding authors publishing in eligible journals will automatically be offered free OA publishing. Contact openaccess@psu.edu if you have trouble.

Penn State corresponding authors can publish open access through SAGE at no additional charge, as part of the Libraries' agreement with SAGE. This agreement applies to 98% of SAGE titles. The initial agreement ran from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023. It has been renewed through December 31, 2024.

To take advantage of this deal, list your Penn State affiliation when you submit the article. There is no code to enter. Penn State corresponding authors publishing in eligible journals will automatically be offered free OA publishing. Contact openaccess@psu.edu if you have trouble.

Penn State corresponding authors can publish open access through Taylor and Francis at no additional charge, as part of the Libraries' 2024–2025 agreement with Taylor and Francis. This deal covers up to 210 articles per year. To take advantage of this deal, use your Penn State email address or identify Penn State as your institution (ideally both) when you submit the article. There is no code to enter. All current Taylor and Francis journals have an open access option and are therefore eligible for this deal. Penn State corresponding authors publishing in eligible journals will automatically be offered free OA publishing. Contact openaccess@psu.edu if you have trouble. If you are a PSU affiliate and the corresponding author of an article published in a Taylor and Francis journal that was accepted January 1, 2024 or after, you can contact oalibrarianenquiries@tandf.co.uk to request retroactive conversion of your article to OA.

Penn State corresponding authors can publish open access in all Wiley publications (including Hindawi journals) at no additional charge, as part of Penn State’s participation in the 2023-2025 BTAA-Wiley read & publish contract.

To take advantage of this deal, list your Penn State affiliation and Penn State email address when you submit your article. There is no code to enter. Penn State corresponding authors whose articles are accepted in a Wiley hybrid journal or submitted to a Wiley Gold or Hindawi journal between January 1st, 2023, and December 31st, 2025, will automatically be offered free OA publishing. Contact openaccess@psu.edu if you have trouble.

This article from Learned Publishing analyzes 36 full-text transformative agreements recorded in the ESAC registry.

This registry lists standardized basic information for hundreds of transformative agreements, including Penn State and Big Ten Academic Alliance agreements.

This 2018 blogpost by Lisa Matthias on the OpenAIRE blog explains some problems with the hybrid open access model, where some articles in a journal are open access (typically by means of an APC) and others are not.