Library purchasing
The Royal Society journals
The Royal Society's peer reviewed journals cover all of science and are essential reading for all science departments. Royal Society Publishing is driven by the mission of the Society to recognise, promote and support excellence in science. We are global in our outlook and our editors and reviewers come from all over the world. The Royal Society journals are broad and interdisciplinary in their approach, helping researchers to see where their work fits into the wider scientific landscape and make connections across subject boundaries. Themed issues from prominent guest editors and varying article types including short reports, reviews, opinion, and synthesis mean we publish much more than reporting the results of research. Our editors actively commission and curate journal issues on topics that are vital to scientists in many different disciplines. Royal Society journal articles are downloaded over 30 million times every year and cited long after publication.
The ‘A’ side scholarly journals focus on the physical sciences; physics, mathematics and engineering. The ‘B’ side scholarly journals are for articles in biology and life sciences. Interface and Interface Focus bridge this subject divide.
Philosophical Transactions A
Influential themed journal issues across the physical sciences; physics, mathematics and engineering.
Proceedings A
Research articles in chemical, computational, mathematical, physical, engineering and earth sciences.
Biology Letters
Short, innovative research from across the biological sciences.
Philosophical Transactions B
Influential themed journal issues across the life sciences.
Proceedings B
Dedicated to the fast publication and worldwide dissemination of high-quality biological research.
Journal of Royal Society Interface
Cross-disciplinary research bridging the life sciences / physical sciences divide.
Interface Focus
Themed issues on vital topics covering cross-disciplinary research.
Notes and Records
Original, international research in the history of science, technology and medicine.
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society
A unique compilation of obituaries celebrating the lives and scientific achievements of Fellows of the Royal Society.
In addition to our hybrid journals, we have two fast-growing gold open access scholarly journals.
Royal Society Open Science
High quality research across all of science; continuous publication ensures fast access to the latest research.
Open Biology
Established in response to researcher requests for a home for open access cellular and molecular biology papers.
Publishing developments
Just as the Royal Society plays a role in leading different aspects of science, Royal Society Publishing is at the forefront of new publishing developments. We have introduced a number of open science practices that include transparent peer review, an open data mandate, and an open access policy that allows authors to deposit their work in a repository.
In 2021 we introduced Read & Publish agreements that allow institutions to purchase both access to journals and uncapped open access publishing for their researchers. This model has helped bring our open access output up from 45% in 2020 up to 71% by the end of 2024.
Our Royal Society Open Access Equity scheme supports tens of thousands of researchers based in over 100 low- and middle-income countries and territories by providing free access and/or automatic APC waivers.
For 2026 we will be converting our eight hybrid journals to a Subscribe to Open model. If this is supported by the library community, there is potential that all of our published content for 2026 will be open access under a CC-BY license.
Get in touch
Library partners all over the world renew their relationship with us every year. Download the 2025 journals catalogue for an introduction to the Royal Society journal portfolio, an overview of packages and details on pricing.
Most of our peer reviewed journals are purchased as part of a package that offers a discount on the list price. If your institution subscribes to our journals and your researchers regularly publish with us, you may well gain extra value from moving to a Read & Publish model. Institutions who are not quite ready for a transformative deal can continue to subscribe and support their authors to publish open access with us through our Open Access Membership scheme.
Contact your local sales representative to purchase a subscription or arrange a free trial for your library from Royal Society Publishing.
