The Company of Biologists renews Read & Publish Open Access agreement with the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL)

31 January 2024

The Company of Biologists is delighted to announce the renewal of our Read & Publish Open Access agreement with the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL).

The agreement will run from 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2026, and corresponding authors at Max Planck Society’s 86 institutes can continue to publish 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.

Ádám Dér, Head of the Scientific Information Provision at MPDL, says:

“We at the MPDL are delighted to extend our collaboration with The Company of Biologists, which means we can continue to offer our researchers the possibility to publish open access in all the publisher’s journals as well as access to all previously published content. Providing these opportunities to our authors is at the heart of our overall strategy in the world of scholarly publishing, in line with the Max Planck Society’s vision of openness, which in turn reflects the principles of the OA2020 Initiative and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access.”

Rich Blount, Regional Sales Manager at The Company of Biologists, says:

“We are pleased to be continuing our partnership with the Max Planck Digital Library and to offer authors in 86 Max Planck Society institutes the opportunity to publish Open Access research articles in our five prestigious journals.”

Claire Moulton, Publisher at The Company of Biologists, says:

“As a not-for-profit publisher dedicated to supporting the biological community worldwide, we have a long-standing commitment to Open Access publishing. Our journals were the first in the world to be awarded Transformative Journal status by Plan S and the success of our Read & Publish initiative has already driven a significant increase in Open Access research content in our hybrid journals. We welcome the renewal of our Read & Publish agreement with the Max Planck Digital Library and look forward to working together to promote the growth of Open Access publishing in the biological and biomedical sciences in Germany.”

Find out more about the agreement and participating institutions

About The Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society is Germany’s premier research organisation. Since its establishment in 1948, over 20 Nobel laureates have emerged from the ranks of its scientists, placing it on a par with the best and most prestigious research institutions worldwide. The 86 Max Planck Institutes and 17 Max Planck Centers internationally focus on innovative research fields and address forward-looking scientific questions. More information at www.mpg.de/en

About The Max Planck Digital Library
The Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) is a central unit of the Max Planck Society that supports scientists with a broad portfolio of services in the fields of information provision, publication support, and research data management. On behalf of the Society, the MPDL coordinates the global initiatives OA2020 and ESAC, which together strive to enable and implement the open access transition of scholarly journals. For more about the MPDL, visit www.mpdl.mpg.de/en

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 hybrid journals – Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology – and our fully OA journals – Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open.

We also 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.