Guide for authors at institutions with Read & Publish agreements
If you are a corresponding author at an institution participating in our Read & Publish Open Access initiative, you can publish Open Access research articles and research reports free of charge in Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology by following the steps below.
1. Check if your institution has a Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists
A list of institutions that are participating in our Read & Publish Open Access initiative is available here. If your institution is not on the list, you may wish to contact your library to find out if they are planning to participate soon.
2. Submit your article using our Bench>Press submission system
- Follow the link to the submission system for your chosen journal below.
- If you already have a Bench>Press account, log on using your existing username and password. If you are a first-time user, you will need to create an account.
- Enter the “Author Area” and select “Submit a new manuscript”.
- Follow the on-screen instructions and be sure to select “Open Access” and to include the full name of your institution and your institutional email address.
3. What you need to do if your article is accepted
- Complete and return the Publication Agreement in your Bench>Press Author Area.
- We will send you a link to our RightsLink system and, if your institution is participating in our Read & Publish agreement, an automatic fee-waiver will be applied.
- Select “Seek funding from [name of institution]” and then click “next”. You will be taken to the sign in page of our RightsLink Open Access payment system. If you already have an account, log in using your existing username and password. If you are a first-time user, you will need to create an account.
- When you are signed in, you can review your details, approve the terms and conditions, and select ‘Submit for Approval’.
- You will receive a confirmation email as soon as your institution confirms that you are eligible for free OA publishing under their Read & Publish agreement with us. A PDF proof of your article will be sent to you for review, and the final approved version will be published under an Open Access CC-BY license.
4. Promote and share your article
Your article will be published Open Access. This means you can share the article as widely as you like (via social media and scholarly collaboration networks, by email, in your teaching etc) in the knowledge that everyone worldwide – regardless of their institution’s licensing arrangements – can read it and share it further.
Any questions? Please click on the links below to email the relevant journal:
