The Royal Society has announced plans that would make its journals open access next year.

A ¡°subscribe to open¡± model is being adopted by the society, which is asking libraries to support the plan through their subscriptions.

If enough libraries sign up, the society said, its journals will be converted to open access for the year.

This would allow papers published in eight of its subscription titles, including the world¡¯s oldest peer-reviewed journals, Philosophical Transactions A and B, to be freely available to read online, with author fees also removed. The society¡¯s other journals, Open Biology and Royal Society Open Science, are already open access.

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The journals will ¡°become free to read and publish in for any author or reader, not just those associated with a subscribed library¡±, the society said.

It will repeat the offer in subsequent years as it works with libraries, institutions and consortia to establish ¡°read and publish agreements¡± which it said would ¡°provide a sustainable model of open access in the longer term¡±.

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Rod Cookson, publishing director for the Royal Society, said the subscribe to open model ¡°will help us transition more quickly and equitably, and is the right approach at this stage of our open access journey¡±.

¡°Most importantly, it will make the society¡¯s journals stronger in the future, by reaching more readers and a wider range of researchers around the world.¡±

Mark Walport, vice-president and chair of the Royal Society¡¯s publishing board, added that it had a ¡°long history of transformative scientific publishing¡±.

¡°This proposal is a natural next step which, along with the society¡¯s ongoing review on the?¡®future of scientific publishing¡¯, continues the tradition of innovation it has brought to scholarly communication since launching the world¡¯s first scientific journal in 1665.¡±

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tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com