RSC Publishing has announced plans to offer increased publishing choices for its journal authors.  

From this month RSC Open Science will offer authors the option of paying a fee in exchange for making their accepted research paper openly available to all, via the web.  

RSC Open Science goes one step further than similar services provided by other chemical science publishers - all article types, not just primary research papers, published in RSC Journals are eligible for inclusion in this scheme.   

'This ensures that the RSC continues to support all authors at every stage of their research programme,' said editorial director Robert Parker.

'RSC Open Science will only be available to authors whose papers have been accepted for publication, following the normal rigorous peer-review procedures.   This will guarantee that the processes remain entirely separate and that the RSC's scientific and editorial standards are upheld.   Authors who have published their work in RSC journals will also be able to retrospectively apply for their work to be included in the scheme.'

Fees for RSC Open Science in 2007 are dependent on the article type published:

Communications £1000, Primary Paper £1600, Review £2500

Robert Parker added: 'A 15% discount will be applied to fees for authors who are RSC members, or are a member of a society which owns or co-owns the journal in which they are publishing, and to those whose institution subscribes to RSC journal packages A or B.'