The Royal Society of Chemistry provides all authors with the option to make their article gold open access through payment of an article processing charge on acceptance in any of our journals.

A gold open access article is free to access online immediately and permanently in its final published form (version of record).

We support gold open access, and encourage funding to be made available to support authors. We ensure that authors can comply with the open access policies of their funding bodies by providing a choice of licence and deposition services to PubMed and PubMed Central. Read more on our position on open access.

All articles that are published gold open access are subject to our rigorous peer review, professional editing and production services and will be freely accessible to all on our website. An open access symbol will be visible alongside your article to show readers it is free to access.

1. Submit your article

There are two types of journal that offer open access:

Full gold open access journals

All of the articles are gold open access, usually after payment of an article processing charge. The content is available free online for everyone to read. Our full open access journals are:

Hybrid journals

Traditional subscription journals in which some of the articles are freely available if the author has chosen to publish gold open access. A subscription is required to read the remaining articles.

All our journals (with the exception of the full gold open access journals) are hybrid.

Articles in hybrid journals can be made gold open access at any time after acceptance, even after publication. Please contact the Customer Services team if you wish to change your article from our standard licence to publish to an open access licence.

Related links

View a list of all our current journals
Submit your article to one of our journals

2. Choose a licence

Once your article has been accepted for publication you will be asked to agree to a licence to publish.

If you have submitted to a hybrid journal, you will be asked if you want to select gold open access publication and you will be given a choice of open access licence.

If you have submitted to a full open access journal, you must publish gold open access and you will be given a choice of open access licence.

We offer industry-standard Creative Commons licensing for open access publication in all of our journals. These licences have more flexible terms for re-use and distribution of a work than a standard licence to publish, enabling our authors to fulfil funding body requirements.

Copyright

Copyright is retained by authors (or their employers) when an open access licence is accepted, as with our standard licence to publish agreement. Full and accurate attribution to the original author is required for any re-use of the work.

Licence options

We offer a choice of two Creative Commons licences. Creative Commons is a global non-profit organisation, offering free open access licences. Further information is available on the Creative Commons website. Authors may select the appropriate licence according to their funding body and research institute requirements or their personal choice.

CC BY licence 

Allows other users to reuse, distribute, and build upon the work, even commercially, with full original author attribution.

Download CC-BY licence example form

CC BY-NC licence

Allows other users to reuse, distribute, and build upon the work, non-commercially, with full original author attribution.

Download CC-BY-NC licence example form

3. Payment

Gold open access usually requires payment of an article processing charge (APC). See below for more information about:

Article processing charges (APCs)
Discounts
Waivers
Gold for Gold

 

Article processing charges (APCs)

The Royal Society of Chemistry supports a sustainable model for open access publication. APCs support this model by contributing to the costs of publishing open access articles.

Our APC is all inclusive, and:

  • Makes your article freely available online, permanently
  • Includes your choice of Creative Commons licence (CC BY or CC BY-NC) at no extra cost
  • It is not a submission charge, so you only pay if your article is accepted for publication. There are no additional colour or page charges
  • The invoicing process is handled by administration staff who are not involved with the peer review or acceptance/rejection of your paper
  • Enables us to provide excellent service for authors, learn more about the benefits of publishing with us

Hybrid journals

Article type APC
Communication £1,000 (+tax if applicable)
Paper £1,600 (+tax if applicable)
Review-type article £2,500 (+tax if applicable)

Please contact us if you are unsure which article type applies to your article.

Full gold open access journals

RSC Advances
RSC Advances is a full open access journal and specific APCs apply.

Chemical Science
Chemical Science is a full open access journal. There are no fees charged for publication.

Nanoscale Advances
Nanoscale Advances is a full open access journal. APCs are waived for all authors until mid-2021.

RSC Chemical Biology
RSC Chemical Biology is a full open access journal. APCs are waived for all authors until mid-2022.

Materials Advances
Materials Advances is a full open access journal. APCs are waived for all authors until mid-2022.

Environmental Science: Atmospheres
Environmental Science: Atmospheres is a full open access journal. APCs are waived for all authors until mid-2023.

Refunds

We may, upon request, and at our discretion, refund an APC or offer a credit towards future open access publication.

Voucher codes

If you would like to use an open access voucher code, please enter a valid code when you are prompted for payment details.

 

Discounts

We offer a variety of discounts on APCs. The following sections describe who is eligible and how you can claim a discount.

Members of the Royal Society of Chemistry

Please include your membership number in the online application form when requested to do so. We will then apply a 15% discount automatically. Find out more about how to join the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Members of journal owner societies

The Royal Society of Chemistry publishes some journals that are co-owned by other member societies. Members of these societies are eligible for a 15% discount on APCs for the relevant journal. A list of the eligible societies can be found on the following journal web pages.

Biomaterials Science

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP)

To claim the discount, please indicate your membership on the online application form when requested to do so. You may be asked to provide proof of membership.

 

Waivers

The RSC is committed to levelling the playing field for global researchers and increasing inclusion and diversity. Corresponding authors who are based in countries classified as Group A and Group B by Research4Life are eligible to receive a full APC waiver.

Other authors who are required to publish under a gold open access model, but have no access to funds to pay the APC can request a discount or waiver; these will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Discounts or waivers will only be granted where authors can demonstrate a requirement to publish under a gold open access model. Other RSC journals should be considered if funds to pay the APC are not available and open access publication is not a requirement. 

During the submission process authors will be required to identify if they expect to qualify for a waiver. Upon acceptance, APCs will be waived automatically for papers qualifying for a waiver under the Research4Life scheme. Other authors requesting a waiver will be required to apply after having signed an open access licence and will need to provide the following: 

  •  Evidence of any stipulation for mandatory open access publication 
  •  Country of residence and affiliation of all authors 
  •  Location the research was conducted

The open access payment process is handled by RSC staff who are not involved with the peer review or acceptance/rejection of the paper, to ensure complete independence from editorial decisions. Information about how the publication charge is covered will be kept confidential. 

 

Gold for Gold

Our Gold for Gold pilot scheme has ended. Find out more information or contact the Customer Services team if you have any queries. 

4. Share your research

Our gold open access licences grant additional sharing and deposition rights for authors.

  • The author may deposit the PDF of the version of record in an institutional or other not-for-profit repository. No embargo period applies. There should be a link from this PDF version to the published article on the Royal Society of Chemistry website.
  • The author can share the PDF of the version of record publicly via their personal website or a scholarly communication network.

PubMed Central (PMC) deposition

Published research that is the product of a Europe PubMed Central funder's grant must be made freely available. For these gold open access articles our open access team will deposit the version of record to PubMed Central to help authors comply with their funder's mandate.

Cancer Research UK, European Research Council and Wellcome Trust are among the funding bodies that mandate a PMC deposition if funding has been received. A full list of Europe PubMed Central funder organisations and their open access policies can be found on the Europe PubMed Central website.

We will deposit an article to PMC after it has been successfully made gold open access, and once it has been published in an issue.

Please ensure that you input the details of any funding bodies when prompted during submission and that they are clearly stated in the acknowledgements section of your main article.

After we have deposited your article, it can take several weeks for it to appear in PMC. PMC will notify you once it is available; it will also be deposited in Europe PMC three days after this.

Journals, books & databases

Customer Services team

For general publishing and open access enquiries.
Office open: 9am - 5pm Mon-Fri
Tel:
+44 (0) 1223 432176
Email:
Send us an email

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