APS and Jisc Announce New Read, Publish and Join Partnership

Transitional agreement is first for UK digital education powerhouse and US publisher

Rockville, Md. (October 21, 2020)—The American Physiological Society (APS) is proud to announce a Read, Publish and Join pilot with Jisc—the U.K. education and technology not-for-profit—offering U.K. institutions unlimited, immediate open access publishing in the APS Digital Library. This innovative custom publishing model is the first of its kind, bundling reading and publishing under a simple annual fee, with the additional bonus of a one-year membership for authors who publish with APS.

APS is the first U.S.-based biomedical society to enter into a transitional agreement with Jisc, offering this critical research community the opportunity to publish in APS journals in compliance with U.K. funder mandates. The addition of APS membership connects U.K. researchers to the Society’s multidisciplinary community of scientists and educators from around the world, driving collaboration and spotlighting scientific discoveries in physiology. The pilot will be in effect in 2021 and 2022 and will include access to the APS Digital Library—which includes content from 10 physiology research journals and two review journals.

“This transformative arrangement with Jisc will take away administrative barriers for participating U.K. libraries and give their researchers the immediate and seamless option they need to publish their open access work with APS,” said APS Director of Publications, Marketing and Sales Stacey Burke. “Jisc is clearly dedicated to learned societies like APS and their importance in the scholarly communication ecosystem, making them ideal candidates to further our Read, Publish and Join model.”

“We are delighted that this agreement offers Jisc members unlimited open access publishing with an esteemed learned society like APS,” said Kathryn Spiller, licensing manager at Jisc. “The additional ‘join’ element is the first of its kind and represents a further incentive for institutions to sign up and is a great benefit to their researchers. We hope that this will inspire other U.S. society publishers to work with Jisc to develop new, innovative and compliant models to enable a sustainable transition to open access.”

The APS Read, Publish and Join agreement with Jisc is based on historical publishing and subscription spends and offer one simple annual fee. For institutions that opt in, their patrons receive access to the APS Digital Library and unlimited open access publishing, plus the unique bonus of a one-year APS membership for corresponding authors. APS will automatically identify these authors based on their institutional affiliation. Upon acceptance of their manuscript with APS, the author will be notified that their work can be published under an open CC-BY license without paying article processing charges. This option, provided by their library and APS, allows the author to retain copyright of their article.

“Models like our Read, Publish and Join are part of the Society’s efforts to find sustainable publishing options in an open access future,” said APS Chief Publishing Officer Colette Bean, MA. “In our diverse community, we need to support all researchers around the globe, including early-career researchers, those without adequate funding and those submitting research reports when their grants have been exhausted.”

APS’ mission is to advance scientific discovery, understand life and improve health. Serving the research and professional development needs of the vibrant APS community is the Society’s top priority. Programs such as the innovative Read, Publish and Join initiative—which provides researchers with a frictionless open access publishing process that gives them a platform for their work and complies with their local funder requirements—are critical to that mission.

To learn more about bringing the Read, Publish and Join model to your institution, contact Stacey Burke at sburke@physiology.org.

About APS
Physiology is a broad area of scientific inquiry that focuses on how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function in health and disease. The American Physiological Society connects a global, multidisciplinary community of more than 10,000 biomedical scientists and educators as part of its mission to advance scientific discovery, understand life and improve health. The Society drives collaboration and spotlights scientific discoveries through its 16 scholarly journals and programming that support researchers and educators in their work.

About Jisc
Jisc’s vision is for the U.K. to be the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world. At its heart is the super-fast national research and education network Janet, with built-in cybersecurity protection. Jisc also provides technology solutions for its members (colleges, universities and research centers) and customers (public-sector bodies), helps members save time and money by negotiating sector-wide deals and provides advice and practical assistance on digital technology. Jisc is funded by the U.K. higher and further education and research-funding bodies and member institutions.