Rockefeller University Press Secures Transformative Journal Status from cOAlition S

Rockefeller University Press (RUP) has attained Plan S compliant Transformative Journal status from cOAlition S. Authors receiving funding from members of cOAlition S may be eligible to have their Immediate Open Access (OA) fees covered in Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), and Journal of General Physiology (JGP).

“Transformative Journal status is an exciting milestone for RUP as we position our journals to become full open access,” says Susan King, RUP Executive Director. “We have seen a steady increase in authors who opt to make their articles OA, a growing expectation of the public to be able to access to peer-reviewed research, and a positive push from funders. As a publisher in service to the scientific community, RUP is honored to have secured this status.”

Robert Kiley, Head of Strategy at cOAlition S, comments: “Transformative Journals enable publishers to provide publishing services that fully align with the Plan S principles. We are delighted that Rockefeller University Press is supporting this model and commits to transition these titles to full open access.”

JCB, JEM, and JGP are currently hybrid journals, on their way to fully OA, publishing OA content that is immediately available to the public under CC-BY license as well as content that is free to all six months after publication under CC-BY-NC-SA license, all after rigorous peer review and rapid publication. All content is deposited in PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC, and it is archived in LOCKSS/CLOCKSS and Portico.

cOAlition S includes national research funders, European and international organizations, and charities, and calls for journals to transition to full OA by increasing the share of OA content on an annual basis. JCB, JEM, and JGP have posted the amount of OA content published in 2020 here, and the journals aim to demonstrate an annual increase in the OA proportion of research content of at least 5% in absolute terms and at least 15% in relative terms, year-on-year, as required under the Criteria for Transformative Journals

With Read and Publish Agreements already in place in the UK and with Max Planck Institutes, and more on the way, and now with the potential of funding from cOAlition S funder signatories to cover the $5,300 Immediate Open Access fee, RUP is on track to meeting its OA targets.

As transparency and sustainability are part and parcel to the shift to full OA, RUP has presented a new transparent pricing model that ensures it will not receive subscription revenue from Immediate Open Access articles.

To address equity in OA publishing and promote important global research, publication fees for Immediate OA under CC-BY license in JCB, JEM, and JGP are automatically waived for primary corresponding authors based in eligible developing countries.

Since 2001, all research articles in RUP have been made free to the public six months after publication. In 2017, RUP began offering an Immediate Open Access gold option to all authors of research articles, and in 2018 launched the fully OA online journal Life Science Alliance (LSA) in collaboration with EMBO Press and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

Learn more at https://rupress.org/pages/transformative-journals.

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About Rockefeller University Press

Rockefeller University Press (RUP) is committed to quality and integrity in scientific publishing. We use the latest technologies and carry out rigorous peer review, applying the highest standards of novelty, mechanistic insight, data integrity, and general interest to fulfil our mission of publishing excellent science. RUP publishes Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), Journal of General Physiology (JGP), and co-publishes Life Science Alliance (LSA). RUP’s nonprofit journals were established by the research community, and editorial decisions and policies continue to be driven by scientists who actively contribute to their fields, appreciate the value of peer review, and desire a better publication experience for all. Based in New York City, RUP is a department of The Rockefeller University, a leading biomedical research university in New York dedicated to conducting innovative, high-quality research to improve the understanding of life for the benefit of humanity. For more information, visit rupress.org.

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