Open Access Membership

Open Access Membership

Our Open Access Membership helps institutions to support researchers who are mandated to publish their research using the open access model. We offer a customised approach to each membership and a commitment to transparent pricing. We will continue to offer this option alongside our Read & Publish agreements.  

The payment process is straightforward and manageable with reporting to help you keep track of your funds. Your researchers will receive up to 25% discount on article processing charges, making research grants and institutional open access funds stretch further. You’ll receive detailed reports on who from your institution is publishing with us. We’re committed to helping institutions publish as much as they can.

Standard Open Access Membership

Each member institution pays an annual fee based on the number of open access articles it published in the Royal Society’s journals during the previous year. Authors affiliated to member institutions then receive a 25% discount on the article processing charge for publishing in any of our journals. This allows your institution to support open access publishing, and enables authors to publish at a substantially discounted rate.

Prepay Open Access Membership

Prepay membership enables an organisation to completely cover article processing charges incurred by its researchers. Prepay members deposit a minimum of £5,000, from which article processing charges are deducted at a 10% discount. The institution authorises each payment before it is processed, meaning that you can choose exactly which projects and researchers are supported by the fund. There is no time limit on the funds being spent.

Reports showing details of funds spent and funds remaining are sent to members, and can be created at any time.  

We are committed to supporting open access, and offer institutions and authors a high level of flexibility to accommodate individual needs and requirements.

Open access agreements

Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL)

Authors at Max Planck institutions can now publish in all Royal Society journals at no cost through a new Publish and Read agreement with Max Planck Digital Library.  

Technische Informationsbibliothek (TiB)

From 1 January 2020 authors submitting to our journals from eligible institutions from Technische Informationsbibliothek (TiB) in Germany will receive a discount on their APC.

All Read & Publish agreements can be found here. Check to see if your institution is listed.

Open access members

The Royal Society is a member of OASPA, the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association.

Find out more information on how to submit an article and about publishing open access with us.