Read & Publish scheme

A recognised stepping stone to open access

Open access (OA) is shaping the future of scholarly publishing, and we are doing all we can to build an open future that works for everyone.

This includes developing services that will help you – whether you’re the one publishing, the one reading, or the one managing the entire process – to make important research more easily available. Read more about open access publishing and research.

Let us introduce you to Read & Publish.

What is Read & Publish?

It’s an alternative to the traditional subscription model. It helps both authors and institutions gradually tip the balance of their publishing output towards open access, making the process easier and more financially viable.

How does it work?

With a Read & Publish agreement in place at their institution, article processing charges (APCs) will be covered by the institution in all hybrid Royal Society of Chemistry journals so that authors can publish gold Open Access (OA). Authors will also receive a 15% discount on APCs for gold OA Royal Society of Chemistry journals*, and readers will have access to every paper in our journal portfolio.

This is based on the number of articles published by corresponding authors during the last full year, and includes all article processing charges for authors who choose to publish gold OA in any of our journals.

This covers your institution’s permanent access rights to our entire journal portfolio – the articles that, in a subscription model, would sit behind a paywall.

Because it takes time to adjust when changing from a subscription-based model, you will get a discount built in to your agreement.

This is based on your institution’s unique situation, and will last for a set amount of time.

These three components make up the final agreement’s price.

*This may vary based on the agreement your institution has with the Royal Society of Chemistry

The benefits of Read & Publish

Tailored & transparent

Your version of Read & Publish will be built around your publishing output and the RSC’s output as a whole, and priced accordingly

Easy to use

During the publishing process, the system will identify you as being from an R&P institution and show you available options

Simple to manage

If you are responsible for managing your agreement, you will get monthly usage reports and activity notifications

Mandate-friendly

The scheme will support you (author and institution) as you work to meet funding requirements and make open access your default publishing choice

Profile-raising

Overall, articles published open access in Royal Society of Chemistry journals are downloaded more often, raising the visibility of your work, and of you as an author

Transformative

The open access landscape is changing fast. Our model has the potential to support a global transition which prioritises the needs of the scientific community

Read & Publish author guidelines

Do you already have Read & Publish where you work? Here’s what you need to know to meet requirements.

• APCs are covered Your institution’s agreement includes the article processing charge for publishing gold OA as a corresponding author.
• Publish in any of our hybrid journals You can choose to publish in any of the journals we class as hybrid (all our journals except our gold open access journals and Chemistry Education Research and Practice (CERP), which are already free to access) and which have a Creative Commons Attribution licence.
• Extras cost more Fees for things like reprints or cover artwork count as extra charges, so make sure to factor this in.

When you are ready to publish:

• Double-check that you are listed as the corresponding author, both in our online submission system and in your manuscript
• Use your official institutional email address to submit your manuscript (this helps us to identify you)
• State your institute affiliation and email address in your manuscript and make sure this remains the same, even after submission
• Do not sign the standard licence to publish; upon acceptance of your manuscript, you will be able to choose and sign the CC BY or CC BY-NC open access licence.

Read & Publish community

We have agreements with 1099 institutions from 33 countries. Find out which institutions have recently joined or are already part of our Read & Publish Community.

You can also read news and further information relating to our Read & Publish scheme.