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20 July 2023

We are delighted to announce that we have signed an exclusive agreement with WorldWide Information Services (WWIS) to represent us in South Africa.

WWIS has many years of experience of working with librarians in a range of settings as well as extensive knowledge of the library subscription and information services and solutions marketplaces. This new partnership provides us with opportunities to increase our visibility and to expand our subscriptions and Read & Publish initiative throughout South Africa.

Over 650 institutions in 41 countries are now participating in our Read & Publish Open Access (OA) initiative, and this is helping to drive significant growth in OA publishing in our leading peer-reviewed hybrid journals (Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology) and our fully OA journals (Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open).

Melissa Badenhorst, Managing Director at WWIS, says:
“We are delighted to be partnering with The Company of Biologists to support the research community in biological sciences in gaining access to their leading peer-reviewed hybrid journals. The Company of Biologists’ Read & Publish initiative is continuing to drive significant growth in the proportion of OA research content, and with an increased authorship from Southern Africa we have no doubt that it will enhance the research output and discovery in biological sciences in this region. Through this collaborative approach institutions in this region will be presented with greater opportunities in the biological sciences to publish OA articles without paying an Article Processing Charge in five leading peer-reviewed journals.”

Sarah Logan, Regional Sales Manager (Africa, the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia, China and Japan) at The Company of Biologists, says:
“We are incredibly pleased to announce our new partnership with WWIS in South Africa. WWIS will be our exclusive agent for Read & Publish agreements for the region and will be able to offer our customers a highly beneficial in-person presence on our behalf. WWIS have excellent relationships with libraries in the region and we are confident that this arrangement will enable us to spread the word about our high quality, peer-reviewed journals and cost-neutral Read & Publish initiative in South Africa.”

Read the announcement online.

ENDS

About WorldWide Information Services (WWIS)
Established in 2006, WorldWide Information Services (WWIS) is a dominant player in the Southern African Information Management Solutions industry. The business supplies print and electronic information services and solutions to the academic, corporate, healthcare and government markets. WWIS’s mission is to innovate in the delivery of subscription and information services and solutions, through flexible local pricing, client and partner consideration and seamless, value-added technology services, coupled with dedicated research support. Its primary objective is to provide clients with the best return on their investment in information resources and to provide innovative solutions to support and improve research within Southern Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa https://www.wwis.co.za/

About The Company of Biologists
The Company of Biologists is a not-for-profit publishing organisation dedicated to supporting and
inspiring the biological community. We partner with libraries and library consortia to enable biologists worldwide to access our leading peer-reviewed hybrid journals – Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology.

We have a long-standing and ongoing commitment to Open Access. Our cost-neutral Read & Publish initiative enables corresponding authors at participating institutions to publish an uncapped number of OA research articles in our hybrid journals and our two fully OA journals – Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open without paying an Article Processing Charge (APC). We were the first not-for-profit publisher to commit to the Transformative Journal approach and our journals were the first to be awarded Transformative Journal status by Plan S. Over 650 institutions in 41 countries are now participating in our cost-neutral Read & Publish OA initiative. We also have Read & Publish agreements with twelve library consortia.

Learn more about our new bio-positive publishing initiative, The Forest of Biologists.

Contact: Sarah Logan
Email: sarah.logan@biologists.com
Website: biologists.com/read-publish
Twitter: @Co_Biologists