13 February 2020

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There’s no doubt that Open Access is shaping the future of academic publishing. A number of changes are on the horizon, with publishers, authors and institutions all responding to new guidelines.

The Company of Biologists is embracing this move with a series of pilot Read & Publish Agreements with leading consortia and academic institutions. But, what exactly are they?

What is Read & Publish?

Acting as an alternative to traditional subscription models, Read & Publish has evolved to include both subscriptions and funding for Open Access. These agreements make the process of publishing Open Access easier and more financially viable, helping authors and institutions gradually tip the balance of their Open Access output.

The benefits of Read & Publish

Participating institutions and their corresponding authors can expect to:

• Publish an unlimited number of gold Open Access articles
• Gain full access to Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology, and their archives
• Increase visibility: making articles free to read increases their online readership

Our agreements

The Company of Biologists signed its first deal in November 2019 with Jisc, a consortium of UK universities. Since then, further deals have been secured with MALMAD, SAMS and IReL. To support access to research, future deals will also focus on collaborating with institutions in the developing world.

For MALMAD, a consortium of Israeli universities, this is the first Read & Publish deal for its member institutions and we are delighted to support their Open Access output.

Of the deals, Matthew Freeman, Chairman of The Company of Biologists and Head of the Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford says:

“As a small not-for-profit publisher, the establishment of Read & Publish deals strengthens our support for the biological community and represents an important step in our open access journey.”

Further information is available on our dedicated Read and Publish page.