How open access works and why it matters
Building an open future that works for everyone
It’s our mission to help you make the world a better place. Open access is crucial to achieving this. We believe that it is the key to building a fairer, more equitable society. One where everyone can access and benefit from discoveries – including researchers, funders, policymakers and the general public.
What could you achieve in a world that is open to all? It’s time to find out.
On this page
The benefits of open access
Those of you who already publish with us will know the benefits that come from choosing our journals. Publishing open access includes them all.
Multidisciplinary collaboration. Scientists in all disciplines and subjects can access and inspire each other.
Available outside academia. Funders, policymakers and the general public all have access to new research.
Boost citation potential. Readily available work can be read and cited easily by more people.
High quality peer review. You can expect a simple process and fair and rigorous peer review.
Keep copyright as standard. You (or your employer) retain the copyright to your article when you publish open access.
Compliant with OA mandates. We make it fast and easy to meet the requirements of your funding body.
How open access works
Choosing to publish open access is easy and straightforward – and it is possible in every Royal Society of Chemistry journal. It refers to the free, permanent, and unrestricted online access to scholarly research. Start your open access publishing journey by submitting to one of our journals, and you will be on your way to making a real-world impact with your next publication.
Gold open access
Publishing gold open access means that your final article (version of record) is freely and permanently available online for everyone to read and cite.
If you are submitting to a journal from our gold open access portfolio your article will follow the gold open access route to publication. You can also choose to publish gold open access in any of our hybrid journals. This option is available to select once your manuscript has been accepted for publication.
What is the submission process?
The submission and peer review processes remain the same – our quality standards are identical for gold open access. Once your article has been accepted for publication, you will need to choose and sign a licence to publish. We offer two industry-standard Creative Commons licensing for gold open access publication: CC BY or CC BY-NC. Find out more about our licences and compare your open access routes.
An article processing charge (APC) will apply for gold open access publication, read more about payments and funding for details on our APCs, and available discounts and waivers. Our Journal Finder can tell you whether your institution has an open access agreement which will cover the APC for you.
Green open access
At the Royal Society of Chemistry, publishing green open access means that your peer reviewed, accepted manuscript may be made available via an institutional or discipline-specific repository after a twelve-month embargo period. Our subscription licence to publish allows green open access for articles published in our hybrid journals.
Your final article (version of record) can be viewed by readers who have a subscription to the journal. Restrictions apply to how you may distribute your article. Read more on how you can share your research.
Article licensing guides
If you're publishing from an institution with an open access agreement:
Our commitment to open science
Our purpose is to help the chemical science community make the world a better place; we envision a world in which the chemical sciences fulfil their potential as a force for good. We strive to work with our community to break down barriers to advancing the chemical sciences and to ensure appropriate equitable, global access to knowledge and data.
We believe that the best ways to enable chemical scientists to make the world a better place are through enabling greater access to knowledge, ensuring that tools and data are presented in a useful way, and that data is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), that practices such as peer review are transparent, that research is carried out ethically and with integrity, that collaboration is encouraged and that ultimately more people are enabled and encouraged to participate in science.
As a group, these principles form the basis of the open science agenda – an agenda that is currently being defined by stakeholders from around the world. Our goal as a learned society, professional body, and publisher is to work with our community and stakeholders, including chemical science researchers across sectors, funders, and policymakers - to develop our vision for Open Chemistry. Together, we’ll uncover barriers, assess motivations, pinpoint catalysts for change, and explore various pathways to an open future that best serves chemistry and society.
Our vision
This is just the beginning. Open access can lead us to a fairer society by making impactful research available to everyone. No matter who you are or where you live, you deserve to access and benefit from new discoveries. And we partner with the best people to make this a reality:
Related pages
Open access payments and funding
Our range of open access agreements, discounts, waivers and transparent pricing mean you can choose to publish open access with confidence.
Open access agreements
Helping researchers worldwide publish open access
Sharing your research
We can help you increase your impact by sharing your research with as many people as possible, including scientists, funders, policymakers and public.