Publisher Open Access Agreements

Publisher Open Access Agreements, also known as ‘Transformative Agreements’ or ‘Read and Publish’ agreements, combine an institution’s journal subscription and Open Access (OA) publishing costs into a single payment, reducing the need for the payment of individual Article Processing Charges (APCs) for each article. Instead, all RVC corresponding authors can publish OA in over 6500 journals at no cost, and at a discounted rate in an additional 1000 journals.
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Important

To be eligible for free/discounted OA under the agreements the RVC author must:

  • be the corresponding author
  • use their RVC email address on the paper and during the submission process (e.g. name@rvc.ac.uk)
  • use their RVC affiliation, providing the College’s ROR ID (https://ror.org/01wka8n18) where the publisher’s submission system accepts this
  • use their ORCID ID, if they have one and the publisher’s submission system accepts this
  • Select the CC BY licence when asked; this is the licence required by the vast majority of funders (e.g. UKRI, REF, Wellcome) and preferred by the College. If you feel your work needs a more restrictive licence, please contact researchoutputs@rvc.ac.uk 

Some agreements cover a publisher’s hybrid and fully OA journals (for info on the distinction please see our Introduction to Open Access), whilst others only cover hybrid titles, and others provide free OA publishing in their hybrid titles and discounted APCs in their fully OA titles. We appreciate this can be confusing so have provided full details for each of our agreements below and have included the details of the discount at the specific journal level within our lists of journals covered by our agreements.

What journals are covered by the agreements?

To search for journals by title you can use the Publisher Agreement Journal Finder tool. Please note this currently shows results from the 2025 lists.

To view all journals covered by our agreements in a single document please consult the spreadsheet here: publishing agreements 2026

RIO are currently working on updating the journals list and authors should contact researchoutputs@rvc.ac.uk if they have any queries or need clarity when choosing to submit to journals.

We currently have agreements with the following publishers and full details for each agreement can be found below. 

Bioscientifica

This agreement offers unlimited OA publishing in Bioscientifica's three hybrid journals and nine fully OA titles. This covers the following journals:-

Endocrine-Related Cancer

Journal of Endocrinology

Journal of Molecular Endocrinology

EFORT Open Reviews

Endocrine Connections 

Endocrine Oncology 

Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism Case Reports 

European Thyroid Journal 

Microbiota and Host  

Redox Experimental Medicine 

Reproduction and Fertility   

Vascular Biology

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Unlimited OA publishing across CUP’s complete collection.

The Company of Biologists

Unlimited OA publishing in Company of Biologists' hybrid and fully OA journals. Follow this step-by-step guide for advice on the submission process.

Elsevier

Unlimited OA publishing in Elsevier’s Core Hybrid, Cell Press, and The Lancet journals.

15% discount on OA publishing in Elsevier's fully OA titles.

If you need support to publish under the agreement please contact researchoutputs@rvc.ac.uk

Microbiology Society

Unlimited OA publishing across the full Microbiology Society portfolio. Submission guidelines have been provided by the Society.

Peer J

PeerJ funding is available from our institutional plan to pay for Basic Memberships. Memberships last for life and allow you to publish one article per year in PeerJ, as long as all authors on a paper have a Membership. Please claim for your membership on this page when your article has been accepted for publication and complete the email verification: https://peerj.com/institutions/58/the-royal-veterinary-college/.

If you need support to publish under the agreement please contact researchoutputs@rvc.ac.uk

Public Library of Science (PLOS)

Unlimited OA publishing in a subset of nine PLOS journals.

PLOS Computational Biology

PLOS Pathogens

PLOS Genetics

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

PLOS ONE

PLOS Digital Health

PLOS Complex Systems

PLOS Ecosystems

PLOS Aging and Health

Portland Press

Unlimited OA publishing across all titles.

Royal Society

Unlimited OA publishing across all titles.

For journal by journal instructions please see:

Springer Nature

RVC has two agreements with Springer: Springer Nature Read and Publish 2023-2025 and Springer Nature Fully Open Access Agreement 2023-2025.

The former provides unlimited OA publishing in all Springer Nature hybrid titles within the Springer, Palgrave Macmillan, and Nature Research portfolios. The Springer Nature Fully Open Access Agreement 2023-2025 provides a 15% discount on APCs in Springer Nature's fully OA journals.

If you need support to publish under the agreement please contact researchoutputs@rvc.ac.uk

Wiley

Unlimited OA publishing in Wiley’s hybrid and fully OA titles.

If you need support to publish under the agreement please contact researchoutputs@rvc.ac.uk

Oxford University Press

The Oxford University Press (OUP) Read and Publish 2026-2028 agreement is now active.
This agreement will cover publishing in OUP publications such as the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine (JVIM). If you have any questions, please email researchoutputs@rvc.ac.uk

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