ACS and Hong Kong Baptist University embark upon ‘read and publish’ agreement

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2021 — The Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) has embarked upon a new partnership with the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). This partnership represents an expansion of ACS’ commitment to open science in China and throughout Asia.

“With this agreement, ACS and HKBU have truly found a way to benefit the global chemistry community,” says Peter Hoving, regional sales director, Asia Pacific, at ACS Publications. “Researchers at HKBU will be able to maintain access to ACS’ world-class subscription journal content, while researchers around the world will be able to access articles describing the cutting-edge scientific research being performed there.”

Under this “read and publish” agreement, HKBU’s researchers will be able to maintain access to subscription-only content while receiving support from their institution to publish open access. Read and publish agreements such as this are revolutionizing scientific research and scholarly communications. Institutions can use their subscription budget twice – enabling them to both access subscription journals and support open access publication by their researchers. Researchers benefit from the larger reach and exposure that open access publication brings, and participating institutions help lead the way toward an open access future. ACS has been a leader in this global movement for years, with transformative agreements in over 20 countries and nearly 400 institutions, now reaching almost every continent.

“HKBU is committed to making the results of its research and scholarship as widely available as possible,“ says Christopher Chan, acting university librarian at HKBU. “The library has long advocated open access publishing as the most effective way of living up to this commitment. By entering into this agreement with ACS, we will remove barriers to access from the important work being done by HKBU researchers and increase the impact of their findings, and we will further encourage the development of open access at the university.”

Open access publication at ACS is growing, with a 63% growth in open access publishing in the past two years and open access article downloads doubling in the same time period. With the introduction of JACS Au and the ACS Au journal portfolio, which has added 10 new open access journals to its portfolio, ACS has made a strong investment in an open access future.

“Partnerships such as this one demonstrate the global interest in open access, and we’re proud to be actively engaging with HKBU in this way,” says James Milne, Ph.D., president, ACS Publications. “These read and publish agreements are crucial to achieving a future with more open access publishing, which ultimately benefits the entire chemistry community.”

In 1956, Hong Kong Baptist College was founded by the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong as a post-secondary college committed to the provision of whole person education. In 1983, Hong Kong Baptist College became a fully funded public tertiary institution. It gained university status in 1994 and was renamed Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). Today HKBU encompasses eight faculties/schools offering a range of undergraduate programmes, associate degree and higher diploma programmes as well as taught postgraduate programmes and research postgraduate programmes leading to the award of master and doctoral degrees. It prides itself on its dual focus on teaching and research and encourages service to society among its staff and students. Over the years, HKBU has remained committed to academic excellence and the development of the whole person and has gained a reputation as one of Asia’s finest institutions of higher learning.