This deal enables unlimited open access in the Biochemical Society’s journals

The Max Planck Society is the latest organization to sign-up to the Biochemical Society and Portland Press’ pilot Read & Publish transformative deal. This provides Max Planck researchers with unlimited open access (OA) publishing and ‘read’ access across the entire journal portfolio. The Max Planck Society joins more than 50 other institutions based around the world, from Tokyo to Texas, participating in this Read & Publish scheme.

Portland Press is the Biochemical Society’s publisher and its pilot Read & Publish scheme, offering unlimited OA publishing, first went live in 2020 as a means of making more of its published research and review articles openly available to researchers everywhere. This Read & Publish agreement guarantees all corresponding authors affiliated with the 86 Max Planck Institutes worldwide with OA publishing of their articles by default and at no additional author-facing charges.

The three-year deal, 2021-2023, repurposes former library subscription funds to support open access publishing, instead, ensuring a move away from the traditional subscription model towards a sustainable publishing model based on open dissemination of research.

Professor Richard Reece, Chair of Portland Press Board, Trustee of the Biochemical Society and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Kent, says: “The Max Planck Society and Biochemical Society are highly aligned in principles and thinking around transitioning to sustainable open scholarship. We are extremely pleased to be piloting this new model with the Max Planck Society and look forward to publishing work from Max Planck scholars on an OA basis in support of the advancement of the molecular biosciences.”

Dr Ralf Schimmer, Head of Information Provision at the Max Planck Digital Library, said: “Through their commitment and thoughtful strategy, the Biochemical Society is paving the way for learned societies toward a sustainable and irreversible transition of scholarly publishing to open access. We are delighted to implement this new agreement in full alignment with the Max Planck Society’s open access transformation strategy and the OA2020 Initiative, for the benefit of our research community and scientists everywhere.”

Portland Press publishes seven journals covering different areas within molecular biology and the life sciences; two are fully open access (OA) titles and there are five hybrid journals where content is usually published behind a paywall, with authors either choosing to pay an article publishing charge to have their work published OA or benefitting from default, charge-free OA publishing where their institution has signed up to a Read & Publish pilot.

To support and accelerate a transition to OA, these pilot Read & Publish deals provide an innovative alternative to the traditional subscription business model in scholarly publishing. The Biochemical Society and Portland Press are committed to a sustainable transition to a more open scholarly publishing landscape and our Read & Publish initiative builds on the principles set out in our Open Scholarship position statement.

Visit portlandpress.com/OpenScholarship for more information.