Max Planck Society, Rockefeller University Press enter “read-and-publish” agreement

Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) has signed an unlimited “read-and-publish” transformative agreement with Rockefeller University Press (RUP) on behalf of the Max Planck Society. The agreement covers Open Access (OA) publishing of articles in RUP’s three hybrid journals: Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM) and Journal of General Physiology (JGP). 

Under the agreement, which runs from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022,  articles by corresponding authors affiliated with Max Planck Institutes will be published immediate open access under a CC-BY license and directly deposited in PubMed Central (PMC). The transformative agreement repurposes former subscription funds to cover all open access publishing fees for authors, and there is no limit to the number of articles that may be published under the terms of the agreement. Max Planck Institutes also receive unlimited access to RUP’s journals. Learn how authors can take advantage of new agreement.

“The opportunity to publish their research articles openly in highly selective journals, such as the Journal of Cell Biology, provides a great benefit to our researchers and contributes to the advancement of science. We are very pleased to have reached this new transformative agreement with Rockefeller University Press, marking a further step in the Max Planck Society’s strategy to enable open dissemination of research, in line with the principles of the OA2020 Initiative and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access.” said Ralf Schimmer, Head of Information Provision at the Max Planck Digital Library.

“The transformative agreement with Max Planck Digital Library represents a significant milestone in our commitment to sustainable Open Access,” says RUP Executive Director Susan King, PhD. “The importance of Max Planck Society’s contribution to life sciences cannot be overstated, and we are thrilled to offer their researchers access to JCB, JEM, and JGP as well as unlimited OA publishing for corresponding authors based at their institutions.”

RUP has made OA publishing a core part of its mission since 2001, when all research articles were made free to the public after six months. In 2017, RUP began offering an Immediate Open Access gold option to all authors, and in 2018 launched the fully OA online journal Life Science Alliance (LSA) in collaboration with EMBO Press and Cold Spring Harbor Press.

“Independent publishers face unique challenges in transitioning to OA publishing, and the partnership between RUP and MPDL demonstrates how research institutions and independent publishers can work creatively and collaboratively towards the shared goal of providing immediate access to the fruits of research to the public,” Dr. King says.

###

About Max Planck Society

The Max Planck Society is Germany’s premier research organization. Since its establishment in 1948, no fewer than 20 Nobel laureates have emerged from the ranks of its scientists, placing it on a par with the best and most prestigious research institutions worldwide. The more than 15,000 publications each year in internationally renowned scientific journals are testimony of the outstanding research work conducted at Max Planck Institutes.

The Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) is a central scientific service unit within the Max Planck Society dedicated to the strategic planning, development and operation of the digital infrastructures necessary for providing its institutes and their scholars and scientists with research information, support for web-based scholarly communication, research tools and research data management and software licensing.

About Rockefeller University Press (RUP)

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), and 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 dedicated to conducting innovative, high-quality research to improve the understanding of life for the benefit of humanity.