Nature family of journals inks first open-access deal with an institution | Science | AAAS

The Nature family of journals announced today it has become the first group of highly selective scientific titles to sign an arrangement that will allow researchers to publish articles that are immediately free to read. The deal will allow authors at Germany’s Max Planck research institutes to publish an estimated 400 open-access (OA) papers annually in Nature journals, which have traditionally earned revenues exclusively from subscription fees.

The deal, known as a transformative agreement, comes as research funders in Europe have pushed to accelerate a transition to OA. Like other such agreements, the 4-year deal—to take effect in January 2021—aims to redirect money that the institutes currently spend on subscriptions to supporting OA publication.

Under the arrangement with the Max Planck Digital Library, the institutes’ authors will be able to make an unlimited number of accepted research articles OA. They would also be able to read all content in Nature journals for free.