Under the read-and-publish model promoted by Cambridge University Press, institutions take funds they previously spent on journal subscriptions and repurpose them to support open-access publishing.
Open-access publishing makes articles available for anyone to read, either immediately or after an embargo period. Different open-access tiers come with different charges and restrictions on article availability. One tier has colleges, universities, libraries or researchers paying to have their articles published and made widely available, which is different from the traditional publishing model, where subscribers pay to access journals.
The growth of Cambridge University Press's read-and-publish model comes in response to moves by major research funders in Europe to mandate the open publication of research they support. It is becoming clear that many publishers want to promote the tier of open-access publishing that has institutions paying for the widest article availability -- a direction that some critics have said could create new barriers to publishing research, particularly for academics at institutions with low levels of financial resources.