Subscribe to Open

In 2021 Royal Society Publishing committed to the ambitious goal of becoming 100% open access by 2026. Subscribe to Open (S2O) will make this possible by enabling our hybrid subscription journals to become fully open access in the next stage of our journey towards full, sustainable open access.

In 2021 we committed to moving the Royal Society journals to 100% open access with an ambitious target of five years. In the same year we introduced Read & Publish which has helped bring our open access output up from 45% in 2020 up to 71% by the end of  2024. Read & Publish has proved to be an effective and sustainable open access model and will continue to be the most inclusive offering for our librarian customers. However, to honour our commitment and help us to move to full open access by 2026, we are converting our current subscription journals to Subscribe to Open (S2O) for 2026. Our fully open access journals Open Biology and Royal Society Open Science will remain gold open access and continue to be covered under Read & Publish.

What is S2O?

S2O is a cost-effective, high-impact and equitable way for publishers to transition to full open access.

S2O allows publishers to convert journals from subscriptions to open access, one year at a time. For 2026 we will offer subscribers to our 8 subscription journals continued access to the journals via S2O. If sufficient current subscribers participate in the S2O offer (simply by not opting out) we will open the content covered by that year’s subscription for everyone and allow all researchers to publish open access without requiring payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC). 

The S2O model is expanding, with new publishers and libraries participating each year. There are now 347 journals from 55 publishers operating on an S2O basis. Participants include learned society, university press and privately owned publishers in Europe and North America, along with major commercial publishers.

What are the benefits of S2O?

• Allows the Royal Society journals to become fully open access for 2026
• Provides equitable open access for authors and readers, with no APCs charged
• Enables compliance with funder requirements, including cOAlition S and the NIH that mandate open access publication
• Enables compliance with many national and institutional OA policies
• Allows existing subscription spending to be converted directly into open access funding
• Provides greater reach and impact of research through increased article downloads and citations
• Supports researchers in low- and middle-income countries and in less well-resourced institutions in more affluent countries
• Flat pricing in Y2 and Y3 if customers sign up for a three year agreement
• Predictable pricing through the (new) Transparent Pricing Model

Is S2O sustainable?

We want to move to full open access by 2026 and S2O can make this possible, but it will depend on you, our library customers. Read & Publish agreements will continue, and during our 2026 renewal period, library subscription customers will be asked to continue supporting the journals as open access publications via S2O. If sufficient libraries agree to do so, conversion to open access will go ahead. If there is not enough support, the journals will carry on with the traditional subscription model for 2026. The offer will be repeated every year, with the opening of each year’s content contingent on sufficient participation.

How can I support S2O?

For 2026 we will offer subscribers to our eight subscription journals continued access to the journals via S2O. Simply continue your current subscription to support our transition to full open access through S2O. Contact us for more information.