The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) has today announced that all journals published by the Society will be Open Access (OA) from January 2024. This move will enable everyone in the global community to have free, immediate, and unrestricted access to the high-quality research published in the portfolio of RAS journals.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters (MNRASL), and Geophysical Journal International (GJI) will join RAS Techniques and Instruments (RASTI), a new journal launched by the Society in 2021, in being fully OA. The RAS journals portfolio will continue to publish alongside Astronomy & Geophysics, the RAS’s magazine for its Fellows, which will see no change.
All articles published in the RAS journals portfolio, from the very first volumes published in 1827 to the latest articles, will be free to read in their entirety. As the scientific community works ever harder to ensure barriers to cutting edge science are eliminated, facilitating openness, dissemination, and reproducibility of impactful academic research, the Society is excited to be a key contributor to the open science movement, helping to drive discoverability and change.
With this move to OA the journals will no longer charge subscription fees and will instead be supported by Article Processing Charges (APCs), with the infrastructure to ensure that authors continue to face no financial barrier to publishing their science in the RAS journals.
The Society will support authors during the transition with an information hub on each of the journal websites, which can be accessed via the links below:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Geophysical Journal International
RAS Executive Director Philip Diamond said: “The RAS is taking active strides in facilitating transparency, inclusivity, and accessibility of its high-quality research output to the advancement of science and the worldwide community of astronomers and geophysicists we strive to support, including our 4,000 Fellows.”
“Astronomy and geophysics research has vast applications. Our move to Open Access will help to ensure that we all benefit from the impact of this ground-breaking work being done by scientists all over the world.”
Media Contacts
Gurjeet Kahlon
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877 700
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Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7802 877699
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RAS Publishing Contacts
Ms Liz Baker / Dr Kim Clube
Publishing Managers
Royal Astronomical Society
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Notes for News Editors
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. The RAS organises scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognises outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 4,000 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.
All submissions to RAS journals undergo peer review, and their suitability for publication is assessed by appropriate specialist subject editors. The Society issues press releases based on a similar principle, but the organisations and scientists concerned have overall responsibility for their content.
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