The Company of Biologists renews Read & Publish agreement with JUSTICE

22 October 2026

The Company of Biologists is delighted to announce the renewal of our Read & Publish Open Access agreement with Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources (JUSTICE).

The renewal comes after a successful initial agreement with JUSTICE and our Japan representative, Kinokuniya being instrumental in further establishing our connection.

The agreement will run from 2027-2029 and corresponding authors at participating institutions 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.

Keijiro Mori, Vice President, Kinokuniya, says:

“The renewal of the Read & Publish agreement for 2027-2029 demonstrates the shared commitment of The Company of Biologists, JUSTICE, and Kinokuniya to advancing open research in Japan. We are pleased to continue supporting a model that benefits both researchers and libraries, and we look forward to building on the success of the agreement in the years ahead.”

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

“We are delighted to reach this new Read & Publish agreement with the JUSTICE consortium, reinforcing our long-standing commitment to supporting researchers and institutions across Japan. This partnership represents an important step forward in making research more accessible and ensuring authors can maximise the visibility and impact of their work through open access publishing. We are particularly grateful to Kinokuniya for their outstanding support throughout the process. Their deep market knowledge, trusted relationships, and dedication to serving the academic community were instrumental in helping bring this agreement to fruition. We look forward to building on our strong partnerships with both JUSTICE and Kinokuniya as we continue to advance open research and knowledge sharing across Japan.”

View current participating institutions

About JUSTICE

Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources (JUSTICE) promotes activities for providing academic information stably and continuously, including e-journals that are essential for the education and research activities of universities in Japan. JUSTICE was formed on 1 April 2011 as a new consortium through an alliance between the Japan Association of National University Libraries (JANUL) and the Public and Private University Libraries Consortium (PULC). In line with the purpose of the “Agreement on Promotion of Collaboration and Cooperation” concluded on October 2010 between the Japanese Coordinating Committee for University Libraries and National Institute of Informatics (NII), various activities are being carried out with the primary objective of promoting the securing of electronic journals, including backfiles, and the establishment of a permanent access assurance system.

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.

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 – Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open – 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 1,000 institutions in 57 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.