What happened
On 10 November 2026, the Dutch open access portal openaccess.nl announced that the 2026 publication cap under the national agreement with Taylor & Francis has been reached. Articles accepted from now on are no longer eligible for free open access under the agreement. Taylor & Francis still offers open access publication, but until a new quota opens the author (or their institution) pays the article processing charge (APC) rather than the consortium agreement. According to openaccess.nl, a new quota becomes available on 1 January 2027.
Key details
- The cap: the Taylor & Francis 2024–2026 agreement allows a maximum of 1,451 open access publications per year, per the agreement page on openaccess.nl, which now states that the cap for 2026 has been reached.
- Who is covered: all Dutch universities, including the university medical centres. Corresponding authors at these institutions can publish open access without an APC in about 2,200 hybrid (Open Select) Taylor & Francis journals.
- After the cap: APCs are payable by the author until the next quota opens. Openaccess.nl does not set out a date-by-date rule beyond the announcement, so authors should check with their own institution’s open access team.
- Green route: under the Taverne Amendment (Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act), authors can make a short scientific work openly available through their institution’s repository after a six-month embargo. Procedures differ by university and medical centre. Openaccess.nl cautions that this route may not satisfy funders that follow cOAlition S requirements, such as the European Commission or NWO.
- Timing: the cap arrived inside the forecast window. An openaccess.nl forecast update of 5 October 2026 projected the Taylor & Francis cap for the first week of November.
- Alternative venue: since 2 November 2026, researchers at Dutch institutions eligible for NWO funding can publish free of charge in Open Research Europe (ORE), with no NWO grant required (see below).
What it means for researchers and research offices
For researchers. If an article was accepted at a Taylor & Francis hybrid journal on or after the cap announcement, do not assume the agreement will cover the APC. Check the publisher’s author workflow, and if the funder requires immediate open access, confirm funding for the APC or the choice of another route before signing licence paperwork. Where a funder allows it, the six-month green route via the repository is available. Where a funder does not, it may not be enough.
For library and research offices. Expect queries about invoices, about whether a given acceptance date falls before or after the cap, and about funder compliance for the green route. Point authors to a single institutional contact, and flag cases where the publication was planned around the national agreement. The 1 January 2027 quota reset means some authors may consider the timing of acceptance; whether that is practical depends on the journal’s own processes and any funder deadlines.
Open Research Europe. Openaccess.nl reported on 3 November 2026 that researchers affiliated with Dutch research organisations eligible for NWO funding can publish in ORE from 2 November 2026 at no cost to authors, with no NWO grant required. International teams can publish if at least one author meets the eligibility criteria. ORE uses pre-publication checks, then open peer review with public reviewer reports, and accepts research articles, methods papers, study protocols, data papers and replication studies, including negative and null results. Funders and organisations from eleven European countries, including NWO, cover the costs; CERN manages the platform’s technical and operational side. ORE is an alternative venue for suitable work, not a substitute for a Taylor & Francis journal where the research fits that journal specifically.
What to watch
- Whether the agreement is renewed: the current Taylor & Francis deal covers 2024–2026, and the 1 January 2027 quota depends on arrangements for the new year, which openaccess.nl will announce.
- Caps under other Dutch agreements. Openaccess.nl has reported that the Springer limit for 2026 was reached on 19 October 2026 and that the Oxford University Press hybrid journal cap was reached on 15 September 2026.
- Institutional guidance on APC handling and repository deposit for the remainder of 2026.
Sources
- openaccess.nl, Taylor & Francis 2026 cap reached (10 November 2026), read 13 November 2026
- openaccess.nl, Taylor & Francis 2024-2026 publisher deal, read 13 November 2026
- openaccess.nl, Open Research Europe now available to researchers in the Netherlands (3 November 2026), read 13 November 2026
- openaccess.nl, Updated forecast for Open Access publication caps (October 2026), read 13 November 2026
