Funding Mandates and the Launch of Nine Fully Open Access ACS Au Journals

Abstract

Over the last two months, I have had many emails and Zoom conversations about why ACS is now launching a suite of nine subdiscipline-specific open access journals, collectively called ACS Au (Figure 1 ). Some of these conversations have revolved around “why now”, and others focused on “why open access”. However, most of these discussions have been centered on “why we need another ACS journal in each of the nine subdiscipline-specific areas when we already have a set of world-class traditional hybrid journals”. Figure 1 Nine subdiscipline-specific open access journal titles, collectively called ACS Au. Top panel: ACS Bio & Med Chem Au , ACS Engineering Au , ACS Environmental Au , ACS Materials Au , ACS Measurement Science Au . Lower panel: ACS Nanoscience Au , ACS Organic & Inorganic Au , ACS Physical Chemistry Au , ACS Polymers Au . I want to start by tackling the question of “why open access”. Many of us researchers are comfortable with the subscription model that ACS has had for decades; our institutions’ libraries pay for a subscription to ACS Publications. We can read their portfolio of journals without worry and can publish articles without additional charge. However, there are some issues with this model. The first is an equity issue. If you work for an institution that cannot afford a subscription, you cannot legally access those journals and the science contained within them unless you have the means to purchase articles at your own cost. The second issue is that government agencies/national funders finance most of our research, and they increasingly expect that grant-funded research is available to all to read—especially all of their taxpayers. In the past, these issues have been addressed by paying an Article Publication Charge (APC) for an article to be published open access in your favorite “hybrid” journal like Analytical Chemistry, ACS Nano, Chemistry of Materials, etc. (https://pubs.acs.org/) or by authors posting their manuscripts to a preprint server (e.g., ChemRxiv, bioRxiv). However, more recently, many national and charitable funders, called cOAlition S (such as the European Commission, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), World Health Organization, Wellcome Trust; full-list available here: https://www.coalition-s.org/organisations/) have signed on to a stricter open access mandate called “Plan S”. 1 Plan S aims to ensure that no research funded by the cOAlition S group of funders are held behind subscription “paywalls”. It mandates, starting 2021, that articles are published without embargo in fully open access journals (commonly termed “gold open access”) under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) where the author or the author’s institution must retain copyright. And that gets to the “why now” and “why we need another ACS journal in your subdiscipline of chemistry”. The implementation timelines for cOAlition S members differ. 2 For instance, from 2021, Plan S principles already apply to those researchers funded by the Wellcome Trust. 3 In contrast, HHMI-funded researchers are mandated to comply with Plan S principles from January 1, 2022. 4 Nonetheless, effective January 2021, some researchers who have published, for instance, in Analytical Chemistry, for decades and consider it their “home community” journal will no longer be able to publish there going forward. ACS estimates that around 10% of their authors will be mandated to publish in fully open access journals between now and 2025. Therefore, the community does need another set of options for all core areas of chemistry and its interfacing areas to provide a home for those authors who are mandated to or wish to publish in fully open access journals. While ACS has three open access journals, ACS Central Science, ACS Omega, and the recently launched JACS Au, 5 none are subdiscipline-specific community journals. The nine ACS Au journals launched in January 2021 will publish the same high-quality and impactful research as you have come to expect from their subdiscipline-specific hybrid counterparts but with the added value of being fully open access. This means a wide potential readership for authors in the ACS Au journals. These journals also offer security for authors who very reasonably may be confused or uncertain of what their funder mandates dictate. They can be confident that these ACS subdiscipline-specific journals will undoubtedly comply with their funder requirements without representing a scientific and publishing compromise. I am delighted to welcome our dynamic, diverse, and representative Deputy Editors (Figure 2 ). The Deputy Editors and Associate Editors for the nine journals are longtime editors of the hybrid journals that make up each of our subdiscipline communities and will continue in those roles as they serve with the new ACS Au journals. Figure 2 ACS Au Deputy Editors. From left to right: ACS Bio & Med Chem Au, Squire J. Booker (Penn State University, USA); ACS Engineering Au, Vivek V. Ranade (University of Limerick, Ireland); ACS Environmental Au, Xiang-Dong Li (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China); ACS Materials Au, Stephanie Brock (Wayne State University, USA); ACS Measurement Science Au, Shelley Minteer (University of Utah, USA); ACS Nanoscience Au, Raymond Schaak (Penn State University, USA); ACS Organic & Inorganic Au, Géraldine Masson ICSN-CNRS, France); ACS Physical Chemistry Au, Gemma Solomon (University of Copenhagen, Denmark); ACS Polymers Au, Arthi Jayaraman (University of Delaware, USA). This dual role strategy has been designed to ensure the same editorial and peer-review quality and selectivity between the hybrid and open access journals. These journals will allow our mandated authors to continue to publish in another “Most Trusted. Most Cited. Most Read” ACS community journal with all the quality hallmarks you are so familiar with. I encourage you to read a webpage hosted by ACS, “Information for authors funded by cOAlition S” (https://acsopenscience.org/plan-s-information/), that answers several frequently asked questions. Some other important questions I have received recently: 1. What is the cost of publishing in these new Au open access journals? The Web site (https://acsopenscience.org/open-access/pricing/) provides information on the APC for the Au journals, which is on par with the APCs for the hybrid journals. ACS member discounts apply, and a total of 87 countries benefit from substantial discounts or full waivers (https://acsopenscience.org/country-discounts/). Additionally, many institutions (>300) have Read + Publish agreements with the ACS that allow their researchers to publish open access with ACS without direct payment of an APC by the author. For the list of institutes, please refer to https://acsopenscience.org/read-publish-agreements/, and confirm with your relevant institute/library if they allow the use of “tokens” for publication in these new Au journals. 2. Will the ACS Au journals allow submission of manuscripts previously posted to a preprint server? Yes, absolutely. ACS Au journal authors may deposit an initial draft of their manuscript in a preprint service such as ChemRxiv, bioRxiv, arXiv, 6 or the applicable repository for their discipline before the manuscript is accepted for publication. Authors may revise the preprint version of their manuscript up until a final acceptance decision has been issued. Please note any use of a preprint server in the cover letter and include a link to the preprint. Please also state how the manuscript has been updated between deposition and submission. 3. What will be the relationships among the various open access journals at ACS? All of the open access journals within the ACS portfolio have manuscript transfer pathways that editors may use at their discretion to allow authors to find the best journal to suit their work. 4. What will be the relationships between the existing ACS hybrid journals and their new open access counterparts? Beyond the use of the dual editorial model, we will ensure that we have a strong collaborative relationship between hybrid and open access publications. This extends to planning future joint virtual/special issues and lectureships, shared social media presence, and cosponsorships. We will not seek to receive and publish manuscripts previously rejected at the hybrid journals—these rejected manuscripts will not be considered at the nine new open access journals. However, we will consider transfers for those manuscripts where Plan S-mandated authors will be better served by publishing in the open access ACS Au journals. In closing, on behalf of the team of ACS Au journals’ Deputy Editors and Associate Editors, I invite you to engage with us as authors, reviewers, and readers to shape and build our nine ACS Au open access community journals. The manuscript submission sites are open. We hope that in time these journals will become your preferred choice in the emerging open access landscape.