The Company of Biologists is delighted to announce a new three-year Read & Publish Open Access agreement with the South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC). This is the Company’s first consortium agreement in South Africa and Worldwide Information Services agency (WWIS), our representative in South Africa, was influential in helping us establish this agreement.

The agreement will run from 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2026, and corresponding authors at participating institutions can publish an uncapped number of research articles immediately Open Access (OA) in our hybrid journals (Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology) and our fully Open Access journals (Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open) without paying an article processing charge (APC). Researchers at participating institutions also benefit from unlimited access to our hybrid journals, including their full archives dating back to 1853.

Sarah Logan, Regional Sales Manager at The Company of Biologists, says:
“We’re thrilled to announce a new Read & Publish agreement in South Africa. This collaboration with the SANLiC Consortium and our exclusive agent for Read & Publish in South Africa, Worldwide Information Services agency (WWIS), opens the door for 26 universities, 6 research councils, and 4 neighbouring country institutions to join a new and advantageous Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists. Participating
libraries will benefit from unlimited access to all journal content and enable their academics to publish research articles fee-free, providing advantages such as wider dissemination and increased citations for authors, and fostering open science in South Africa.”

Ellen Tise, Chairperson of the SANLiC Board, says:
“SANLiC is excited to collaborate with The Company of Biologists to repurpose reading expenditure, enabling our researchers to publish in The Company of Biologists’ hybrid and fully Open Access journals at no fee. We need a world where under-resourced researchers can participate meaningfully in research production and dissemination. So, we are very pleased!”

Melissa Badenhorst, Managing Director at WWIS, says:
“We are delighted to represent The Company of Biologists in this region and support the Read & Publish deal that had been made available to all SANLiC members. This means we can continue to offer SANLiC members and their researchers the possibility to publish Open Access research articles in their five prestigious journals. Providing these opportunities to authors in this region will assist researchers in fostering collaborations and increase visibility of their work.”

View participating institutions | Read the announcement online.