Read & Publish Open Access initiative
The Company of Biologists has been committed to Open Access since 2004 because we believe that immediate and free availability of high-quality research helps us to achieve our mission of advancing excellence in the biological and biomedical sciences worldwide.
We were one of the first not-for-profit journal publishers to launch a cost-neutral Read & Publish initiative and 1,000 institutions in 53 countries are now participating. We also have agreements with many library consortia.
The initiative continues to go from strength to strength and we are delighted to have reached this significant milestone. Read the announcement.
The success of our Read & Publish initiative has also helped us to meet the Open Access growth targets for our transformative journals since 2021. We have seen considerable growth in the percentage of Open Access content in all three of our transformative journals over the past few years, driven by our Read & Publish initiative.
What are Read & Publish agreements?
Available to libraries and library consortia for a single annual fee, our standard Read & Publish agreements offer unlimited “read” access to our three transformative journals – Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology – plus uncapped fee-free Open Access publishing of research articles.
Libraries can also choose to include our two fully Open Access journals – Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open – in their Read & Publish agreement.
Read
Unlimited access to all current and available archive content dating back to 1853
Publish
Free and uncapped publication of Open Access research articles
What are the benefits of Read & Publish agreements?
Our standard Read & Publish agreements offer many benefits to libraries, library consortia and researchers and authors:
- uncapped fee-free publishing of Open Access research articles for all corresponding authors under CC BY licence terms, with authors retaining copyright in our transformative journals plus our Open Access journals – Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open
- unlimited access to our three transformative journals – Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology – including the full archive dating back to 1853 (even if your library does not currently subscribe to them all)
- transparent, cost-neutral pricing calculated on the basis of current subscription spend plus the annual average APC spend (if any) over the last three years
- reduces admin – one annual fee covers reading and uncapped publishing so there are no separate APCs to pay
- multi-year capped pricing options are available
- switching from a subscription to a Read & Publish agreement is straightforward and seamless:
- automatic recognition of corresponding authors and straightforward submission process
- touch-free workflow can be enabled to streamline the APC payment and funding process automatic approvals can be set so that all funding requests will be automatically approved. Transaction reports can be automated and sent at regular intervals
- compliant with funder mandates including Plan S
In addition, ready-made resources are available to help to promote the agreement to researchers and users:
We are also piloting variations of our standard Read & Publish model with the Max Planck Digital Library and the University of California.
Find out more
- Participating institutions and library consortia
- Information for libraries
- Information for library consortia
- Our commitment to price transparency
- Information for researchers and authors, including a step-by-step guide for corresponding authors
- Read & Publish and Open Access video collection
Any questions? Please contact us.
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