Canadian chemistry research publications will now be more openly available through a new three-year read and publish agreement between the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).
Thanks to their libraries’ commitment to driving the evolution of open knowledge, authors affiliated with participating CRKN member institutions can now publish open access in both hybrid and gold RSC journals at no cost to the author. As part of this agreement, researchers at participating CRKN member institutions will continue to benefit from unlimited reading access to RSC journals. This new agreement is expected to result in over 500 articles per year being published open access, ensuring that anyone can have access to this vital research.
Over several months, CRKN’s Content Strategy Committee (CSC) successfully negotiated for terms in the agreement that reflect the needs of CRKN members, at the best value possible. In line with all of our read and publish agreements, this deal repurposes the funds that libraries spend on subscriptions to these journals to now cover both the cost of reading and unlimited open access publishing. The CSC used CRKN’s Licensing Principles along with feedback from members to guide this process.
By signing this read-and-publish agreement, CRKN and our member community demonstrate our commitment to creating pathways to trusted knowledge. Together, we are building a future where knowledge is accessible to all.
CRKN is grateful to the members of the CSC for their guidance through this license renewal negotiation process and for their continued engagement and insights.
The term of this agreement is January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2027. The complete agreement is available on the CRKN website.
Contact:
Mélanie Plante
Communications Coordinator
mplante@crkn.ca