There has been a broad welcome for news that the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and Jisc, the not-for-profit digital services supplier, have agreed a three-year open access (OA) deal.
Running until the end of 2024, the extension and revision of a previous transformative agreement covers all expected publishing output in the RSC’s hybrid journals portfolio.
Researchers at participating institutions will be able to publish open access in hybrid subscription journals at no additional cost, while research libraries at those institutions will be alerted to new eligible articles for approval automatically.
“Supporting our valued community in the UK with a transitional publishing model is an important stepping-stone on the journey to open access, so I welcome the extension of the agreement with Jisc and the institutions it represents,” said Paul Lewis, chief operating officer at the RSC.
“More than ever, we need science to deliver solutions to the global challenges we all face, so I am proud to see the RSC play its part in supporting OA publishing and empowering UK scientists to showcase their cutting-edge research to a global audience.”
You may also like: Ransomware a growing threat, says new Jisc cyber impact report
Researchers are also set to benefit from fast publication times, a reduced financial and administrative burden when publishing, and a raised profile of their work.
“The relationships we have with our publishing community in the UK are integral to our purpose as an organisation, so I am enormously pleased to be extending the agreement with Jisc,” said Emma Wilson, RSC director of publishing.
“We know that our transformative approach supports both individual researchers and the world-leading institutions where they work, so this is an important step forward.”
Her words were echoed by Anna Vernon, head of portfolio, content licensing, Jisc.
“This agreement builds on our work to support institutions and research funders in a rapid and cost-effective transition to open access,” she said.
“We are very pleased to have extended our OA agreement with the Royal Society of Chemistry, which means that all UK authored research in RSC’s hybrid journals will be published OA from 1 January 2022.
“This, combined with the fact that OA articles are used and cited more, means even greater reach and impact for UK researchers and the chemical sciences.”