News

Mar 26, 2026

IReL and Sustainability: How Open Research Supports Climate Action

As the Maynooth University community marks Green Week (23–30 March), it’s an ideal moment to highlight the ways in which IReL contributes to environmental responsibility, climate action, and a sustainable scholarly future. IReL is strengthening Ireland’s climate and sustainability efforts by expanding open access, promoting transparent research infrastructure, and now taking new steps to understand and reduce the environmental impact of digital […]

Mar 20, 2026

Ireland’s National Open Access Monitor assessed positively against OSMI Principles

IReL and OpenAIRE have announced the completion of a comprehensive assessment of Ireland’s National Open Access Monitor using the OSMI Principles of Open Science Self‑Assessment. This evaluation marks a significant milestone in Ireland’s commitment to advancing transparent, responsible, and high‑quality open science practices. The National Open Access Monitor, launched to track and report on the open […]

Feb 10, 2026

IReL Announces New ACM Open Access Agreement

IReL is pleased to announce a new open access publishing agreement with ACM. Under this new arrangement, authors across participating IReL member institutions will be eligible for uncapped open access publishing rights with ACM, subject to standard article review and acceptance processes. This means that eligible authors will be able to publish open access in […]

Feb 03, 2026

IReL members supporting Diamond Open Access

Since 2025, IReL has been promoting and coordinating members’ supports for Diamond open access publishing. Diamond open access means OA without any barriers to participation: the content is freely available to anyone to read or reuse, and authors anywhere are free to publish their works without publication charges or needing to be eligible for OA publishing agreements. IReL already funds support for OA without barriers (such as with our […]

Jan 26, 2026

IReL signs new OA agreement with AIP Publishing

IReL has signed a new three-year agreement with AIP Publishing. The agreement covers eight participating Irish institutions and expands access to AIP Publishing’s portfolio of physical sciences research while supporting a sustainable, transparent transition to open access publishing. Under the terms of the agreement, researchers affiliated with participating IReL institutions will benefit from streamlined publishing […]

Jan 19, 2026

Licencing Officer joins IReL team

IReL is happy to welcome Andra Matthews to the team as our new Licencing Officer. In this role, she will work with publishers, IReL member libraries and IReL colleagues to negotiate and manage a large number of IReL’s license agreements, and ensure that these agreements meet IReL’s Principles for Negotiations.

Jan 08, 2026

ACS Read-Only Agreement for 2026

From 1st January 2026, IReL’s new one-year agreement with the American Chemical Society (ACS) will provide read-only access to ACS content. Unfortunately, despite extensive negotiations with the publisher, an agreement on pricing and terms for open access publishing could not be reached. IReL remains committed to supporting open access and will continue to work with […]

Dec 18, 2025

The Company of Biologists Read & Publish Agreement Renewed for Three Years

IReL is delighted to announce the renewal of its five-journal Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists. Building on the success of our previous partnerships, we have signed a new agreement that will run from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028. Corresponding authors at participating institutions in Ireland can publish an uncapped number of […]

Dec 17, 2025

New De Gruyter Brill Read & Publish Agreement

Academic publisher De Gruyter Brill and the consortium Irish Research eLibrary (IReL) are pleased to announce the signing of a new agreement which gives over two hundred thousand researchers, staff and students at eighteen participating IReL member institutions access to the complete collection of De Gruyter Brill journals while allowing affiliated authors to publish their research open […]

Dec 09, 2025

Strengthening Open Repository Collaboration in Ireland

Open Repositories Ireland (ORI) has recently strengthened their collaboration with IReL, forming a key alliance with the National Open Access Monitor. This partnership was formalised in September when Aaron Binchy, IReL’s Open Access Monitor Officer, assumed coordination duties for ORI. Both initiatives, rooted in NORF recommendations, aim to unify Ireland’s open research infrastructure and advance […]