The Compay of Biologists renews Read & Publish Open Access agreement with Jisc

3 December 2024

The Company of Biologists is delighted to announce the renewal of our Read & Publish Open Access agreement with Jisc, the UK digital, data and technology agency focused on tertiary education, research and innovation.

The agreement will run from 1 January 2025 – 31 December 2026, and corresponding authors at participating institutions can continue to 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), or 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.

Anna Vernon, Head of Research Portfolio at Jisc, says:

“We are pleased to renew our agreement with The Company of Biologists. As well as providing access to the latest biological literature for UK universities and supporting cutting-edge research, it will also continue to facilitate the transition to Open Access for UK research and the publisher.”

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

“As a UK publisher, The Company of Biologists are very happy to conclude constructive negotiations with Jisc and reach a new agreement for the next two years. The number of participants in the consortium has grown year-on-year, so we are delighted the continuation of this groundwork will support researchers publishing their work through Open Access, fee free, via our highly popular Read & Publish initiative.”

Find out more about the agreement

About Jisc

Jisc’s vision is for the UK to be a world leader in technology for education and research. It owns and operates the super-fast national research and education network, Janet, with built-in cyber security protection.  Jisc also provides technology solutions for members (colleges, universities and research centres) and customers (public sector bodies), helps members save time and money by negotiating sector-wide deals and provides advice and practical assistance on digital technology. Jisc is funded by the UK higher and further education and research funding bodies and member institutions. Jisc.ac.uk

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 900 institutions in 52 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.