Open access supports scientific advancement.
By making research freely available to anyone who needs it, open access (OA) publishing allows wider knowledge dissemination, removes reading restrictions in its gold form, and offers more opportunities for researchers to improve the visibility of their work and build a strong reputation.
Because of this, science can progress faster. This is good for everyone.
An open future calls.
How will you answer?
Inclusive OA publishing
Open access is shaping the future of scholarly publishing. We are working to make sure that the transition to open publishing is smooth, fair and sustainable, with no compromise to quality, or to ethical standards.
Those of you who already publish with us will know the benefits that come from choosing our journals.
Publishing open access includes them all.
- We apply the high standards you’ve come to expect from us to all of our publishing procedures, from acceptance rates to rigorous and fair peer review.
- In their first year, articles published OA with us are downloaded 97% more often than non-OA work. This means increased reach, and a boost to citation potential when your research is at its most relevant.
- Article submission is a clear, simple process that shows you relevant payment and licensing options (including APCs with built-in industry standard CC-BY licences). You also keep the copyright as standard.
- Our APCs are among the lowest in our industry, and we also offer a range of waiver and discount options – including one that means you pay nothing at all to publish your work.
All of this means that you can trust our journals to be a source of reliable, quality research, which accurately represents global progress in a wide range of fields.
How do you feel about Plan S and open access?
The open access landscape is changing fast, and there are many questions still to be answered about its future. We want to make sure that we’re doing all we can to make sure that this future is sustainable, secure and inclusive.
You may know that a group of research funders are proposing a set of 10 principles that they hope will make all publicly-funded research openly available – their plan is called Plan S.
How will Plan S affect the chemistry community? We need to know what you think, so that we can effectively advocate for your needs.
Please take a few moments before 14 April to watch this video, then add your voice to the conversation by answering two questions at the end.
Together we will influence the future of open access.
You can help us to better advocate for the chemistry community by taking one minute to answer two questions.
You can read our positions and policies on research funding here.
Our flagship journal is free to read,
and free to publish with
We don't want anyone to be excluded from reading the best in new chemistry research. Chemical Science features only exceptionally significant findings, crossing the entire breadth of chemistry on a global scale.
Because it’s gold open access, and with no APC charges, it’s completely free to publish your work in a journal that’s essential reading for all chemists, whatever their specialism, wherever they are in the world.
Flagship
Contains the most exciting new chemistry
Wide-reaching scope provides comprehensive coverage of the best research
High quality
Shares cutting-edge solutions to global challenges
Fast times to publication mean rapid visibility
Rigorous and fair peer review process
Accessible
Free to read, and free to publish with
No trend-chasing here – we cover all areas of chemistry and focus on quality work
Global
A worldwide readership gives us a broad reach
Managed by an international board based in multiple countries
Open access journals
As well as Chemical Science, two more of our journals are gold open access, and we partner with the Royal Society on another.
RSC Advances
- The largest open access chemistry journal in the world.
- Community-led, with an international team of associate editors and a global readership.
- Known for innovation in both research published and practices, committed to enhancing author and reader experience.
Nanoscale Advances
- Launched as gold OA in 2018, Nanoscale Advances publishes research across the breadth of nanoscience and nanotechnology.
- A full APC waiver makes it free to publish in until mid-2021.
- The home of accessible, field-advancing work with global reach.
Royal Society Open Science
- Published in collaboration with the Royal Society, the journal covers science, engineering and mathematics.
- We manage the editorial process for all chemistry articles.
- Fast, high quality, and gold open access.
A recognised stepping stone to open access
When an institution signs up for this scheme, authors based there can publish gold open access in any of our hybrid journals as part of the agreement.
It also gives the institution perpetual access rights to content from our entire journal portfolio, and supports the sustainable transition to open access publishing.
1. Author submits a paper
2. Paper is accepted (after the peer-review process)
3. We recognise corresponding authors by email domain
4. We let the author know they can publish OA via their institutions Read & Publish agreement
5. Author completes a licence
6. Paper is published OA
7. Monthly and annual reports are provided to each institution showing the number of articles counted against the agreement
Share your work before it’s published
ChemRxiv™ is the free submission, distribution and archive service for unpublished preprints in chemistry and related areas.
Driven by the chemical science research community, you can use the server to rapidly share your work with a global, interdisciplinary audience, and share and discover the very latest findings.
ChemRxiv is co-owned by the American Chemical Society (ACS), German Chemical Society (GDCh) and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Visit ChemRxiv