New Read & Publish agreement between The Company of Biologists and both the KESLI and KCUE Consortia, Republic of Korea

16 February 2024

The Company of Biologists is delighted to announce a new Read & Publish Open Access (OA) agreement with the Korean E-resource Service for Library Consortium (KESLI) and the Korean Council for University Education (KCUE) Consortium, Republic of Korea.

KESLI and KCUE are both large consortia who often collaborate to support their members. This agreement, which runs from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2026, is currently available to hundreds of member institutions in the Republic of Korea. This is the Company’s first consortium agreement in the Republic of Korea and LIS KOREA, our representative, was influential in helping us establish this agreement.

Corresponding authors at participating institutions in the Republic of Korea can publish an uncapped number of research articles immediately Open Access (OA) in our hybrid journals (Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology) and our fully Open Access journals (Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open) without paying an article processing charge (APC). Researchers at participating institutions also benefit from unlimited access to our hybrid journals, including their full archives dating back to 1853.

Dr Kim Wan-Jong, Director of Open Access Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Information (KISTI), says:

“It is a great pleasure to announce the inclusion of The Company of Biologists in the KESLI Consortium through their committed Read & Publish agreement. This agreement marks a significant step in the long journey to full Open Access. Through the Korean E-resource Service for Library (KESLI) Consortium, we will cooperate with Open Access innovators, including global publishers and the research community, to advance Open Access in the Republic of Korea.”

Sung-Chul Moon, Director of the Electronic Information Business Division of the University Library Association at The Korea University of College Library Association, says:

“The KCUE Consortium is a joint purchasing consortium of university libraries in the Republic of Korea. The 2024-2026 Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists is the second Open Access conversion agreement for the KCUE Consortium. With this contract, universities have secured both The Company of Biologists’ journals and Open Access publishing rights and can contribute to the spread of open science, where academic research outputs are freely available not only to university researchers but also to anyone in the world. In the future, the KCUE Consortium plans to accelerate Open Access conversion agreements with more publishers.”

Tony Kim, CEO, LIS KOREA, says:

“We are delighted to launch The Company of Biologists’ Read & Publish initiative at the KESLI and KCUE consortia. The Read & Publish initiative in the Republic of Korea will improve access to five leading peer-reviewed journals and will enhance Open Access research output without the need to pay APCs. We will continue to work with The Company of Biologists to support libraries and research communities in the Republic of Korea.”

Sarah Logan, Regional Sales Manager at The Company of Biologists, says:

“We are thrilled to announce a Read & Publish agreement with KESLI and KCUE. This has been enabled by our new partnership with LIS KOREA, whose role in informing, engaging, and supporting libraries has resulted in a large proportion of existing subscribers switching to Read & Publish through the agreement.

This enthusiastic response from libraries demonstrates the significant appeal of Read & Publish which provides researchers in the Republic of Korea with fee-free Open Access publishing of Research Articles in all five of our journals, increasing the visibility and reach of their research. The high level of engagement from consortia members has now secured significant discounts for libraries joining the agreement.”

View participating institutions

About the KESLI Consortium
The KESLI Consortium, operated by KISTI, provides a range of services to support libraries in public and research institutions in Korea to efficiently access electronic information. It also proactively accepts open access proposals, including transformative agreements that convert subscription-based electronic scholarly materials to open access. For more information, please visit the website (www.kesli.or.kr.)

About the KCUE Consortium
The KCUE Consortium is organised by the Council for University Education and operated by The Korea University and College Library Association. It concentrates on supporting the changing university research environment, reducing the cost of purchasing university library materials, and securing work efficiency. For more information, please visit the website (kcue.or.kr.)

About The Company of Biologists
The Company of Biologists is a not-for-profit publishing organisation dedicated to supporting and inspiring the biological community. We partner with libraries and library consortia to enable biologists woldwide to access our leading peer-reviewed hybrid journals — Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology – and our fully OA journals — Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open.

We have a long-standing and ongoing commitment to Open Access. Our cost-neutral Read & Publish initiative enables corresponding authors at participating institutions to publish an uncapped number of OA research articles in our hybrid journals and our two fully OA journals – without paying an Article Processing Charge (APC). We were the first not-for-profit publisher to commit to the Transformative Journal approach and our journals were the first to be awarded Transformative Journal status by Plan S. Over 750 institutions in 47 countries are now participating in our cost-neutral Read & Publish OA initiative. We also have Read & Publish agreements with many library consortia.

Learn more about our new bio-positive publishing initiative, The Forest of Biologists.