The Royal Society, with its steadfast commitment to excellence in science, has been on an impressive journey toward open access (OA) and open science (OS). Over the past 11 years, the proportion of authors choosing OA in their hybrid journals has risen significantly, from approximately 11% in 2012 to about 60% by the end of 2022. The Royal Society boasts two fully OA journals, Royal Society Open Biology and Royal Society Open Science.
The institution's transformative agreements further facilitate OA publishing, covering regions such as the United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East and Turkey, Australia and New Zealand, Africa, North America, and Asia. These agreements eliminate APC fees at the point of use or provide a 25% discount for OA membership deals.
As the Royal Society continues to grow, it embraces shared infrastructure to enhance efficiency and offer a smoother experience for authors and institutional partners. Automation, exemplified by the Rightslink for Scientific Communications solution, plays a pivotal role. This solution simplifies the management and processing of various agreements, ensuring a seamless publication process. Automation recognizes authors associated with Read & Publish or OA Membership deals, streamlining approval workflows and enhancing the overall customer experience.
The partnership with the OA Switchboard aims to elevate the level of information shared with funders, institutions, and authors. Custom connectors developed for the Royal Society contribute to efficient reporting and a seamless OA publication journey. Timely access to robust OA publication data is crucial for authors, institutions, and funders, and initiatives like the OA Switchboard and Rightslink for Scientific Communication play a key role in standardizing and streamlining data sharing.
Looking ahead, the Royal Society is poised to continue championing OA publishing, leveraging partnerships and technological advancements to enhance the publishing process. Transformative Journals like Proceedings A, Proceedings B, Biology Letters, and Interface are on track to move to a fully OA model when 75% of articles are published as OA. The Society's commitment to OA is reflected in initiatives like the Royal Society Open Access Equity scheme, providing free access and automatic waivers for eligible researchers in over 100 low and middle-income countries and territories. As the institution advances its OA journey, it seeks increased institutional participation in transformative agreements to expand OA content and move closer to achieving its goals.
