Open Access News

Authors of RSC journal papers can now choose to have their research freely available the moment it is published – for a fee.... 

The RSC has been critical of such open access (OA) publishing models in the past but Robert Parker, RSC publishing’s editorial director, said the move was business-minded to keep RSC publishing competitive. ‘We need to position ourselves so that we have a basis for any potential new source of income or financial model,’ he said, ‘within the remit of serving the chemistry community and disseminating chemistry.’ 

In the same vein as the ACS model, the RSC will offer authors whose papers have satisfied the peer review process the option to pay a fee for their article to be made freely available. The basic fee for a primary research article will be £1600....

Despite the increasing emergence of OA publishing, neither the RSC nor ACS is optimistic about its financial benefits or popularity among the chemistry community. Parker told Chemistry World that he predicted a low uptake of fewer than 100 OA papers in the next year and warned that any quick move to the full OA scenario would pose ‘a challenge to learned societies’.... 

The RSC posting today on CHMINF has more detail:

RSC Open Science goes one step further than similar services provided by other chemical science publishers -- all article types, not just primary research papers, published in RSC Journals are eligible for inclusion in this scheme. This ensures that the RSC continues to support all authors at every stage of their research programme....

Authors who have published their work in RSC journals will also be able to retrospectively apply for their work to be included in the scheme.

Fees for RSC Open Science in 2007 are dependent on the article type published:

• Communications £1000
• Primary Paper £1600
• Review £2500

A 15% discount will be applied to fees for authors who are RSC members [and some others].

There are still more details on the RSC Open Science FAQ:

Where can I post any articles of mine that are freely available as a result of my having paid the RSC Open Science fee?  In consideration of the RSC Open Science fee the RSC will make freely available the final published version in all online formats on the RSC’s website for an unlimited period of time. The RSC will deposit the accepted author version of the paper in selected repository(ies); no embargo period applies where the RSC Open Science fee has been paid. You may deposit the accepted version of the submitted article in other repository(ies) as required, with no embargo period, except that you are not permitted to deposit your work in any commercial service....

If I opt for free publication, where and when will my article be made freely available? The RSC will deposit the accepted version of the submitted paper in repository(ies) as deemed appropriate, and the paper will be made available with an embargo of making this available to the public after 12 months....

What can I do with the PDF article that the RSC makes available upon publication?  You may archive the PDF version of your article on your personal website, via the INTRAnet of your organisation, and via any internal website that your university may have for the deposition of theses.

Will RSC take author-pays revenues into account in setting future journal prices?  Yes, but with the caveat that, along with many other publishers, RSC considers the author-pays open access model to be an experiment rather than a proven business model. Running this model alongside the normal subscription route for access represents a risk, and the RSC reserves the right to withdraw the author-pays open access model at any stage. 

Comments.

1. First note that the Royal Society of Chemistry is not the same as the Royal Society, which launched its own hybrid program in June.
2. RSC will not apparently let participating authors retain copyright or use CC or equivalent licenses on their articles.  Nor will it waive the fee in cases of economic hardship.  RSC will provide OA to the published edition, but even paying authors may only deposit the peer-reviewed manuscript, not the published edition, in an OA repository.  Authors who don't pay the fee may only self-archive with a 12 month embargo, which is a retreat from RSC's previous green policy.  RSC will consider reducing its subscription prices in proportion to author uptake, but doesn't say that it will actually do so.  It looks like authors will have to pay the RSC for the right to comply with a funder OA mandate, at least if the funder wants OA sooner than 12 months after publication.  This is one of the least author-friendly hybrid programs yet.  For more details on these criteria, see my nine questions for hybrid journal programs. 
3. The RSC's previous publishing director, Peter Gregory, said in August 2006 that fee-based OA journals were "ethically flawed" and "financially unproven".  (See my comment.)  Gregory is now the editorial director at Wiley-VCH, Wiley's German subsidiary.