Read & Publish Open Access agreements
Over 850 institutions in 49 countries are participating in our cost-neutral Read & Publish initiative and we have had great feedback from librarians, library consortia and authors.
We have also signed Read & Publish and other transformative Open Access agreements with many library consortia.
What do Read & Publish agreements offer?
Read & Publish agreements offer many benefits to libraries and researchers.
Key benefits:
- unlimited access to our three hybrid journals – Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology – and their full archives dating back to 1853 (even if your library does not currently subscribe to all the journals)
- uncapped, immediate and fee-free Open Access publishing of research articles for corresponding authors in our hybrid journals plus our two fully Open Access journals – Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open
- compliant with Plan S and funder mandates
- transparent, cost-neutral pricing
- easy to switch from a subscription to a Read & Publish agreement (see draft licence)
- automatic identification of corresponding authors
- reduces admin – one annual fee covers reading and uncapped publishing so there are no separate article processing charges (APCs) to pay
Quick links to further information:
Pricing and licensing
Pricing for Read & Publish agreements is calculated on the basis of current subscription spend plus the annual average APC spend (if any) over the last three years.
A sample Read & Publish institutional agreement is available here.
Library toolkit
An expanding range of resources – including posters, social media graphics and website banners – is available to help librarians at participating institutions inform researchers about the ways in which Read & Publish agreements will benefit them.
What do librarians say?
Kyle Brady, Scholarly Communications Manager, Digital Research, Research and Innovation Services, University of St Andrews, UK:
By signing up to The Company of Biologists’ Read and Publish deal we are now able to increase the quantity of OA articles authored by our researchers in the biological sciences, and at the same time reduce the admin burden by simplifying the OA ordering process.
Rachelle M. McLain, Collection Development Librarian, Montana State University, USA:
MSU Library’s Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists will further advance open access research and scholarship at MSU. This is important because it means the work of MSU-affiliated authors who are publishing in their journals will be available to a larger audience because it is not behind the barrier of an online paywall.
