ACS collaborates with Max Planck Institute on open access plan

In a notable development in open access publishing, the American Chemical Society has formed a four-year strategic partnership with Max Planck Gesellschaft (MPG) to provide researchers affiliated with Max Planck Institutes the opportunity to disseminate, through open access, 100% of their research articles published in ACS journals.

In addition, Max Planck researchers will receive full access to ACS Publications journals and Chemical & Engineering News’s Global Enterprise institutional edition. C&EN is published by ACS.

“We are committed to supporting researchers in publishing open access in the journal of their choice, while ensuring the quality, reliability and preservation of the scholarly record,” says James Milne, senior vice president of the Journals Publishing Group at ACS Publications.

Under the partnership, open access publication fees, which would normally be paid for by individual authors, will instead be supported through a “read and publish” arrangement between ACS and the Max Planck Digital Library. This arrangement blends the funding for subscription access with funding for open access article publishing charges, providing Max Planck researchers with access to ACS’s journals as well as a fast track to fully-funded open access publication with ACS, says Brandon Nordin, senior vice-president of sales, marketing, and innovation at ACS Publications.

“This is an exemplary illustration of how scholarly societies can partner with libraries to test new economic models that enable societies to continue their precious contributions to science while transitioning to a future-oriented model of scholarly communication,” says Ralf Schimmer, head of Information Provision at Max Planck Digital Library.

Gerard Meijer, director of the Max Planck Society’s Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin and an author with ACS journals, applauds the new development. “ACS is among the most relevant publishers for Max Planck Society researchers,” he says. “This new agreement is an exciting opportunity for our authors to achieve the greatest visibility possible by publishing their accepted articles open access within the ACS journals that they highly value.

“This deal is particularly significant given Max Planck’s high profile advocacy in furthering the open access discussion in Europe,” Nordin says. “It will transform Max Planck’s position, moving them from publishing less than 20% of their articles under an OA license with ACS to close to 100%, while assuring their research community’s continued access to ACS Publications’ highly respected and expanding portfolio of peer-reviewed journals. While stimulating change, it preserves author choice, academic freedom, and MPG’s continued participation in the vibrant scholarly community that surrounds each of ACS’s journals.”