New Read & Publish agreement between The Company of Biologists and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)

28 February 2025

The Company of Biologists is delighted to announce a new Read & Publish Open Access agreement with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS).

The agreement, secured with the support of our regional agent, Charlesworth, runs throughout 2025 and is available to all 35 member institutions, including the Academy’s publishing house.

Corresponding authors at participating institutions in China can publish an uncapped number of research articles immediately Open Access (OA) in our transformative 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 transformative journals, including their full archives dating back to 1853.

Yufei Wang, Director of Resource Construction and Service Department, Institute of Agricultural Information, CAAS, says:

“Following a comprehensive evaluation, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (National Agricultural Library) reached a Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists in 2025. This landmark agreement will grant CAAS researchers not only access to The Company of Biologists’ journals but also the opportunity to publish Open Access articles in all the Company’s journals without article processing charges (APCs), provided the corresponding author is affiliated with CAAS.

The signing of this agreement marks a significant attempt by our library in the field of Open Access. We hope that through the implementation of this agreement, we can further enhance the academic influence of our research outputs, promote scholarly publishing towards a more open, transparent, and sustainable direction, and support the global innovation ecosystem of open science.”

Mike Evans, CEO, Charlesworth, says:

“We are pleased to partner with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) on The Company of Biologists’ 2025 Read & Publish agreement, providing researchers from 35 CAAS institutions with seamless access to the Company’s journals and Open Access publishing. This collaboration reflects Charlesworth’s commitment to supporting research visibility and impact. With over 25 years of experience in Asia, we specialise in strategic marketing solutions that help institutions expand their global reach and influence.”

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

“I am very happy to announce a new agreement with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). This agreement provides access to the 35 CAAS Research institutes in China including its publishing house. We are grateful to our regional agent, Charlesworth, for their support in promoting and arranging this agreement, which supports the needs of this prestigious research institution and their network of institutes. By joining the five journal Read & Publish initiative, the institutes gain access to high quality biology content and also empower their researchers to disseminate their research without financial barriers to publishing Open Access.”

Find out more about the agreement

About CAAS

Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) is a national comprehensive agricultural research institution in China. It was established in 1957 and is affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) of China. With headquarters in Beijing, CAAS oversees a graduate school, 34 affiliated research institutes located in Beijing and across China, and a publishing house. Promoting sustainable agriculture within and outside China, CAAS is committed to significantly advancing high-level agricultural science and technology innovation to benefit global society.

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 worldwide to access our leading peer-reviewed transformative journals — Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology — and our fully OA journals — Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open. The Company of Biologists celebrates its 100-year anniversary in 2025.

We also have a long-standing and ongoing commitment to OA. Our cost-neutral Read & Publish initiative enables corresponding authors at participating institutions to publish an uncapped number of OA research articles in our transformative journals and our two fully OA journals — without paying an APC. We were the first not-for-profit publisher to commit to the transformative journal approach and we are working towards a greater percentage of OA content year on year. 1,000 institutions in 53 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 bio-positive publishing initiative, The Forest of Biologists.