Your open access options
Your choice. Your options. Start your open access journey.
Choosing to publish open access is easy and straightforward – and it is possible in every Royal Society of Chemistry journal. It refers to the free, permanent, and unrestricted online access to scholarly research. Start your open access publishing journey by submitting to one of our journals, and you will be on your way to making a real-world impact with your next publication.
We’ve outlined your options below, so let’s get started.
On this page
Gold open access
Publishing gold open access means that your final article (version of record) is freely and permanently available online for everyone to read and cite.
How do I choose this option for my article?
If you are submitting to a journal from our gold open access portfolio, you will have to choose this route to publication. However, you can also publish gold open access in any of our hybrid journals. This option is available once your manuscript has been accepted for publication, and a member of our editorial team will assist you.
What is the submission process?
Our submission system remains as easy and stress-free as usual. And the same applies to peer review – our quality standards are identical.
However, if your manuscript is accepted for publication, you will need to choose an open access licence and, in some cases, pay an article processing charge. Many of the journals in our gold open access portfolio are currently waiving APCs (see payments and funding for details). As always, our editorial teams can help you with any submission queries.
Gold step-by-step submission process:
- Choose any RSC journal
- Send us your manuscript
- Peer review
- Acceptance - pick an open access licence
- Pay the article processing charges, apply for a waiver or publish under an open access agreement
- Share your research
Diamond open access
Diamond open access is exactly like gold open access, but we cover the article processing charges. This option is available in our flagship journal, Chemical Science. Like gold open access, the final published article (version of record) is made freely and permanently available online.
How do I choose this option for my article?
Publishing diamond open access is only available in Chemical Science. If your manuscript is accepted for publication, our editorial team will prompt you to select a licence.
Is the submission process any different?
The submission process and fair peer review remain the same as publishing in any of our journals. Our easy-to-use submission system means it’s possible for you to submit your manuscript in less than 20 minutes.
- Choose to submit to Chemical Science
- Send us your manuscript
- Peer review
- Acceptance – pick an open access licence
- Share your research
We cover the article processing charges to publish in Chemical Science.
More routes to open access
Hybrid journals
You can choose to publish open access in any of our journals. We have a dedicated portfolio of gold open access journals which only publish in this way. All of our other titles are known as hybrid journals because:
- You can choose to publish your work open access
- Or you can choose to publish your work for subscription-only audiences
Open access agreements
A stepping stone to open access.
Our agreements allow you to publish gold open access in our journals without paying an article processing charge (APC), and also give you complete access to our journal library. Our journal finder can tell you whether your institution has an open access agreement and which journals are included. See who has signed up.
ChemRxiv™
Share your work before it’s published.
ChemRxiv™ is the free submission, distribution and archive service for unpublished preprints in chemistry and related areas. It’s driven by the chemical science community and serves as a platform to share and discover the latest findings.
ChemRxiv™ is co-owned by the American Chemical Society (ACS), German Chemical Society (GDCh), and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Green open access
At the Royal Society of Chemistry, publishing green open access means that your peer reviewed, accepted manuscript may be made freely available via an institutional or discipline-specific repository after a twelve-month embargo period. However, your published work can still be shared and viewed within this period if a reader has a subscription.
What is an embargo period?
An embargo is a period of time when access to published content is temporarily restricted. If you choose to publish an article green open access, we require an embargo before you make your article freely accessible.
At the Royal Society of Chemistry, our standard licence requires an embargo period of twelve months.
During the embargo period:
- your article's version of record is published in one of our journals, where it is available to subscribers
- restrictions apply to how you may distribute other versions of your article.
What happens after the embargo period?
Once the embargo period has passed, your article's version of record remains available to subscribers in the journal where it was published. You may freely distribute the accepted manuscript of your article through your personal website, not-for-profit repositories, and many scholarly communication networks. Read more on how to share your research open access.
Compare your open access routes
This table summarises the differences between diamond, gold and green open access at the Royal Society of Chemistry. The route you choose will affect how you can share your article.
| Diamond | Gold | Green | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version available | Version of record freely available on the publisher's website | Version of record freely available on the publisher's website | Accepted manuscript freely available in an online repository | |||
| Availability | Open access is immediate | Open access is immediate | Embargo period usually applied.* Ours is 12 months | |||
| Charges | No fee payable by author | APC may be payable by author, institution or funding body | No fee payable by author | |||
| Creative Commons | CC licence is required | CC licence is required | No CC licence is required | |||
| Can be published in | Chemical Science | Gold open access or hybrid journals | Hybrid journals | |||
| Sharing rights | Accepted manuscript | Sharing rights | Accepted manuscript | Version of record | Accepted manuscript | Version of record |
| Share with individuals on request, for personal use | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Use for teaching or training materials | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Use in submissions of grant applications, or academic requirements such as theses or dissertations | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Share with a closed group of research collaborators, for example via an intranet or privately via a scholarly communication network | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Share publicly via a scholarly communication network that has signed up to STM sharing principles | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ⏱ | ✖ |
| Share publicly via a personal website, institutional repository or other not-for-profit repository | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ⏱ | ✖ |
| Share publicly via a scholarly communication network that has not signed up to STM sharing principles (only with CC BY) | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Choose your licence
Once your article has been accepted for publication, you will need to choose and sign a licence to publish. We offer industry-standard Creative Commons licensing for open access publication in all of our journals. These licences have more flexible terms for reuse and distribution of a work than a standard licence to publish, enabling our authors to fulfil funding body requirements.
We offer a choice of two Creative Commons licences. 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
What about copyright?
You (or your employer) retain the copyright to your article whether you are publishing open access or not. If someone wanted to reuse your work, they would need to acknowledge you fully and accurately.
Contact customer services
We're here to help. Contact our customer services team if you have any questions about publishing with us. Our office is open 9am - 4pm (UK time), Monday to Friday.
Tel:+44 (0) 1223 432176
Related pages
Open access payments and funding
Our range of institutional agreements, discounts, waivers and transparent pricing mean you can choose to publish open access with confidence.
Sharing your research
We can help you increase your impact by sharing your research with as many people as possible, including scientists, funders, policymakers and public.
Open access agreements
Helping researchers worldwide publish open access