Subscribe to Open for authors
We are pleased to announce that we have reached our Subscribe to Open (S2O) target for 2026 and all of our subscription journals have been made open access for the year. In 2026, researchers can publish open access in the Royal Society’s eight subscription journals without having to pay an article processing charge (APC). The journals covered are Proceedings A, Proceedings B, Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Biology Letters, Interface Focus, Philosophical Transactions A, Philosophical Transactions B and Notes and Records.
This page helps authors to understand Subscribe to Open. If you are a librarian, then you'll find more relevant information at Subscribe to Open for librarians.
What is Subscribe to Open?
In January 2026, we launched Royal Society S2O as part of our transition to full, sustainable open access. S2O allows publishers to convert journals from subscriptions to open access, one year at a time, if sufficient subscribers participate.
I’m a researcher, how does this affect me?
In 2026, researchers can publish open access in the Royal Society’s eight subscription journals without having to pay an APC. The journals covered are Proceedings A, Proceedings B, Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Biology Letters, Interface Focus, Philosophical Transactions A, Philosophical Transactions B and Notes and Records. All articles will be published open access by default under a CC-BY licence. If your paper is accepted, you will not need to do anything else as the simple workflow will take care of it, leaving you free to concentrate on your research.
Our born open access journals Open Biology and Royal Society Open Science will remain gold open access. APCs for these journals will continue to be covered under Read & Publish and discounted under Open Access Membership. In addition to these agreements, you may be eligible for our Royal Society Open Access Equity scheme or an open access waiver.
Will the S2O journals be open access in 2027?
S2O is conditional, and if not enough support is available in future years, the journals will revert to a hybrid open access model. Under the hybrid model, authors can opt for open access and pay an APC (discretional waivers are available) or publish non open access for free. If the model reverts for 2027, authors with articles in progress will be asked to make a decision about whether to opt for open access or not. Articles published open access through S2O will remain open access even if the journal reverts to hybrid.
What are the benefits of S2O?
- Allows the Royal Society journals to become fully open access
- Provides equitable open access for authors and readers, with no APCs charged
- Enables compliance with funder requirements, including cOAlition S and the NIH, that mandate open access publication
- Enables compliance with many national and institutional open access policies
- Provides greater reach and impact of research through increased article downloads and citations
- Supports researchers in low- and middle-income countries, and in less well-resourced institutions worldwide
Why choose us?
There are many reasons for choosing to publish with us: as a non-profit, any surplus goes back into supporting science; between them, our journals cover the whole of science, with the option of multiple article types and themed issues; our peer review is rigorous and constructive; our times are fast, and our publishing policies meet the guidelines set down by all major funders. When your paper is published, our marketing and press teams work together to provide maximum visibility and impact for your work.
We hope you will choose to publish your next paper with us. Whichever journal you choose, we will offer you an excellent publishing service. Discover more benefits of publishing with the Royal Society.
Author support
We provide detailed author guidelines and checklists to help researchers prepare their articles for submission to Royal Society journals.
New to publishing research? Our comprehensive ECR hub provides early career researchers, with the foundational knowledge of the publishing process and brings together resources to help them publish.
I’m a librarian, how can I support S2O?
Librarians can read more about how they can support S2O on our S2O page for librarians.
