Read & Publish: what authors at UK institutions say
We have received great feedback from authors at institutions participating in our current three-year Read & Publish agreement with Jisc, as well as the initial two-year pilot agreement which preceded it.
In the 2022-2024 agreement, institutions can choose to include uncapped, immediate and APC-free Open Access publishing in our two fully Open Access journals (Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open) in addition to our three hybrid journals (Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology).
Dr Amanda Goodwin, University of Nottingham, UK
Dr Amanda Goodwin, University of Nottingham, UK
"As an author, the post-acceptance processing of my paper was incredibly easy! The Read & Publish agreement meant that I didn’t personally have to arrange payment for the publication of my research, and everything was dealt with on my behalf by the journal staff and my institution. Open Access publication is a key requirement of my research funder, so knowing that this agreement was in place took a weight off my mind when I was preparing my manuscript for submission."
"We are delighted with the Read & Publish agreement between University of Cambridge and The Company of Biologists. It was very smooth to publish Open Access in Development and this also helped us meet funder requirements."
"I was very pleased to discover that Durham University has a Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists. This led to the seamless Open Access publishing of our article, which is important both for us in terms of getting our article widely available immediately, and for our funders who rightly require Open Access of publicly funded research."
Professor Serge Mostowy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK
Professor Serge Mostowy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK
"The Company of Biologists is doing great things for science and the community. The Read & Publish agreement with London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine enabled immediate Open Access publishing of our research, maximising readership and impact."
Professor Stephen A Renshaw, University of Sheffield, UK
"I was delighted to find that we could publish in DMM for free through the Read & Publish agreement. This makes a real difference for papers like this and my lab is very supportive of this endeavour."
"We didn’t have access to funding to publish our work, so the Read & Publish agreement between our institution and The Company of Biologists was key! We are thrilled that with Open Access, our paper is available to anyone, anywhere in the world."
Professor Laura Machesky, University of Cambridge, UK
"I was excited to find that my university has a Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists. This meant that I could immediately publish our study of the role of Collagen-6 in the cancer microenvironment as an Open Access article when it was accepted in Journal of Cell Science. This kind of arrangement means that authors can make their work more accessible to everyone and reach a wide audience."
"Open Access agreements such as Read & Publish are a step towards making scientific knowledge freely accessible to everyone, which is crucial for the advancement of research and understanding. The ability to immediately publish articles Open Access through the Read & Publish agreement between The Company of Biologists and University College London helped me share our findings and contributions with a wider audience, enabling greater collaboration and dissemination of knowledge. I am grateful for this agreement and the smooth publishing experience with Development."
Professor Michael Schrader, University of Exeter, UK
Professor Michael Schrader, University of Exeter, UK
"Open Access is so important for disseminating scientific research to the global community and overcoming the barriers in knowledge accessibility. Having the Read & Publish agreement in place between The Company of Biologists and the University of Exeter really streamlined and simplified the publication process for us and meant our cutting-edge research could rapidly be shared with the world."
"Knowledge should be available to everyone. Therefore, I am delighted that our article is immediately available as Open Access without a publishing fee thanks to the Read & Publish agreement between the University of Edinburgh and The Company of Biologists.
We had a great experience with Biology Open and it will definitely be among our top choices for future articles."
"Our paper in Journal of Cell Science presents new open source software which we hope will be of use to a wide range of researchers. The software is freely available, so it was appropriate that the paper describing it was also freely available. The Read & Publish agreement that The Company of Biologists has with the Francis Crick Institute made this possible and streamlined the publication process. Hopefully such agreements will become standard in scientific publishing as anything that facilitates Open Access publishing and helps to disseminate research published in top journals is to be welcomed."
Professor Christine Watson, University of Cambridge, UK
"I am delighted that our Research Article in Development has been published immediately Open Access under the Read & Publish agreement between The Company of Biologists and the University of Cambridge. We are excited about our work and it’s great that we can share it so readily with the global research community. I have always found the experience of publishing In Development to be a straightforward and rewarding experience and like that the entire peer review process is transparent and available to readers of our manuscript."
"The Company of Biologists has a smooth and supportive publication process and the Read & Publish agreement with my university allowed us to rapidly publish our work Open Access without paying a fee!"
"We were delighted that our paper was accepted in Development and doubly delighted that, thanks to the Read & Publish agreement between The Company of Biologists and The University of Edinburgh, we could publish it immediately Open Access with no extra cost. It is wonderful that our research output is more accessible, thus engaging a wider range of readers. We look forward to submitting forthcoming papers under the Read & Publish agreement too!"
Dr Thomas Tischer, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), UK
"Our institution and funders require Open Access publishing and we believe that scientific knowledge should be open and accessible. After spending so much time on our work, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Read & Publish agreement between the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and The Company of Biologists allows us to immediately make our article free to everyone without any additional article processing charges. This made the final step of our journey hassle-free and it was really quick getting it published."
"I was thrilled to see that Journal of Cell Science was part of a Read & Publish agreement with the University of Liverpool. It makes the publishing process fast and free of charge for authors. For scientists with limited funding such as early-career researchers, this allows the best research to be published in the best journals without having to think about the financial implications. I wish all publishers would follow the steps of The Company of Biologists."
"After all the time spent on revisions, formatting, and doing careful last-minute checks on your manuscript, the last thing you want is to struggle with Open Access compliance and organising payment of page charges! The Read & Publish agreement between my institution and The Company of Biologists meant getting our accepted manuscript out there for all to see was only a click away. Simple and efficient!"
"I was pleasantly surprised to hear that The Company of Biologists has a Read & Publish agreement with The University of Edinburgh (amongst other institutes). The initiative allows for immediate Open Access publication without charge in Development, which is especially important for early career researchers!
With the scientific landscape moving further into Open Research, The Company of Biologists is setting a commendable example."
"If possible scientific knowledge should be open to everyone. It is great that I could publish my work immediately Open Access as part of the Read & Publish agreement between the University of Cambridge and The Company of Biologists."
Professor David Stephens, University of Bristol, UK
Professor David Stephens, University of Bristol, UK
"We always seek to make our research available Open Access and the new Read & Publish agreement has hugely simplified that process for us as authors and also, I hope, for our Open Access Team. This also equalises opportunity for OA publishing for everyone across the University regardless of career stage and funding. It is also great to know this applies to all The Company of Biologists’ subscription journals."
"It was wonderful to discover that we could publish our paper Open Access for free in Development, thanks to the Read & Publish agreement my university has with The Company of Biologists. It’s great to know that our research is immediately accessible to everyone worldwide who wishes to access it."
Dr Èlia Benito-Gutiérrez, University of Cambridge, UK
"Knowledge should have no limits so, not only were we absolutely delighted to publish our article in Development, it was great to be able to publish it immediately Open Access without charge thanks to the University of Cambridge’s Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists."
"I’m very glad that we had the opportunity to publish this paper Open Access without charge thanks to the Read & Publish agreement my university has with The Company of Biologists. I believe science cannot be hiding behind a paywall and restricted to a selected few but should be reachable by anyone, anywhere."
Dr Michalis Barkoulas, Imperial College London, UK
Dr Michalis Barkoulas, Imperial College London, UK
"I was very happy to see that my university participates in the Read & Publish initiative, which facilitates publishing Open Access for free in some of my favourite journals including Development. This was particularly important for my lab in this instance because our relevant funding had just come to an end.
I wish The Company of Biologists good luck in this journey that promises to help our community overcome publishing and accessibility barriers."
"When developing a tool, you don’t want it to sit on the proverbial shelf gathering dust, but you want people to use it. The free Open Access option is great because it maximises the number of people who will see your work, and then hopefully use it to make their own discoveries."
"The Read & Publish Open Access Initiative is just one of the many ways in which The Company of Biologists demonstrates their commitment to supporting the research community. Open Access fees represent a significant barrier to disseminating research, and I was delighted to find out that they are waived for authors from participating institutions when publishing in Development. Another reason to publish in this excellent journal!"
Professor Ian Collinson, University of Bristol, UK
"The cost of publishing Open Access can be a barrier to the broad dissemination of research, but low and behold this time it was free! Seemed too good to be true – had I pressed the wrong button? It seems I did not as my university has a Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists. Free publishing and Open Access; we’ll be sending in more papers soon hopefully!"
"Always happy to publish in Development, even happier to publish Open Access without a charge! Happy to see that our favourite journal can support Open Access while also helping The Company of Biologists continue to support our community."
"As a Research Fellow with limited resources, I am very pleased to be able to publish our article Open Access thanks to the Read & Publish agreement between The Company of Biologists and The University of Bristol. Many thanks are also due to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation who support the submersibles operated by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. The Open Access publishing process itself was painless and completed in a matter of minutes. All four authors are delighted that everyone may access our article immediately, rather than it being behind a paywall. It’s a great system."
"When UCL announced the transformative agreement with many publishers and the Read & Publish Open Access initiative by The Company of Biologists, I couldn’t have been any happier, in particular since Journal of Cell Science and Development are two go-to journals in our area of vascular cell biology and cell signaling. Undoubtedly, it is these kind of initiatives that are needed to use public research funds money wisely and truly make science accessible and more impactful for all. With this kind of publication policy The Company of Biologists will always remain at the top of the pile for us."
"It is important to me that publicly funded research like our own is available for the public to read, and Open Access agreements are a really great tool to help achieve this. It also makes it much easier for me to share our work with collaborators and other interested parties, which I’m sure helps with the overall dissemination of our research."
Dr Elizabeth Clutton, University of Portsmouth, UK
"We were delighted to be able to publish our article Open Access free of charge in Journal of Experimental Biology and we feel very privileged to have this opportunity. As early career researchers completing research that was not funded using a massive grant, we had no funds available to cover publication fees. This is a factor that can limit many researchers, so being able to publish Open Access for free was a lifeline for me and my co-authors."
Professor Geraldine Wright, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK
"Journal of Experimental Biology is one of my favourite journals and I was very pleased that we could publish our article Open Access without charge as a result of the R&P agreement. OA makes our research available to everyone immediately and increases the impact of our work. When you consider how much of our time and public money goes into the production of a scientific article, anything that improves its overall impact and availability amplifies its value."
"My university’s Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists has allowed me to publish the research from my PhD in Journal of Experimental Biology without having to worry about finding funding for Open Access charges. My work is available instantly for free and can be read by JEB’s wide readership of scientists from different backgrounds."
"The Read & Publish agreement between The Company of Biologists and The University of York is a fantastic step forward in reducing barriers to publishing – and accessing – research articles. Alongside pre-printing for early documentation of work, such mechanisms are particularly helpful for early career researchers like me. The first paper from my lab, recently accepted by Journal of Cell Science, was made available Open Access without charge through this agreement and all other aspects of the editorial process were equally simple!"
Professor Fernando Montealegre-Z, University of Lincoln, UK
"Being able to publish Open Access for free in the Journal of Experimental Biology has helped us expand the readership of our research, in a very fast and convenient way. It is particularly encouraging for early career researchers at institutions with Read & Publish agreements for the journal, as it allows them to display their research globally without the need to find costs to cover the Open Access option."
"The Read & Publish agreement is great for us at The Crick. As a corresponding author, I can publish as many papers as I like in The Company of Biologists’ journals, such as Development, without paying an Open Access charge. It also means that as a reader I have access to all The Company of Biologists’ content, dating back to the early 20th century and beyond."
"I was very pleased to publish Open Access in Journal of Cell Science with no fees nor time-consuming admin processes. The clear advantages are rapid and efficient exposure and easy access to my article around the world. I believe it is great to have this publishing option in fast-growing fields in biomedical research."
Professor Sally Lowell, The University of Edinburgh, UK
Professor Sally Lowell, The University of Edinburgh, UK
"I was delighted to have our paper accepted for publication in Development but the cherry on the cake was learning that our paper would be published Open Access for zero pounds and zero pence without me having to do anything.
I’d heard of Read & Publish deals and knew that many universities, including mine, had signed up to them but I had not previously understood the benefits that these deals bring to authors who work at those universities."
Professor Shankar Srinivas, University of Oxford, UK
"It’s wonderful to be able to publish in a journal like Development for ‘free’. The best part for me was how painless the digital paperwork was – the web form is brief and takes very little time to fill out."
We want to make our website, and the services we provide, useful and reliable. This sometimes involves placing small amounts of information called cookies on the device you used to access the internet. If you continue to use this website we will assume you are happy to accept our cookies.
