American Chemical Society and the Norwegian Directorate for ICT and Joint Services in Higher Education and Research announce partnership to move open science forward

Published June 29, 2020

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2020 — The American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Norwegian Directorate for ICT and Joint Services in Higher Education and Research (UNIT) have announced a landmark “read and publish” agreement to advance open access publication by researchers at the consortium’s nine member institutions.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with ACS that will enable many researchers in Norway to continue to publish their work in journals they rate highly, and comply with national open access mandates,” says Roar Olsen, director general of UNIT.

The agreement will run through the end of 2022, creating the potential for 100% of articles published by researchers in affiliated universities to be available open access. Through this collaboration, article publication charges for researchers at affiliated universities will be fully covered, and the authors will additionally benefit from a seamless online workflow solution created jointly by ACS and the Copyright Clearance Center, and from the most liberal of open access licenses, CC BY.

“We’re excited to be partnering with UNIT, as this collaboration will expand the visibility and reach of research findings from Norway’s leading scientists,” says James Milne, Ph.D., president, ACS Publications Division. “Academic publishing is positively shifting toward open science, and this most recent agreement shows that ACS is at the forefront of this change by innovating new ways for authors, librarians and the academic community to engage with scholarly research.”

ACS has responded to growing global interest in open access agreements by partnering with over 350 institutions in 17 countries. ACS continues to provide researcher-centric solutions — programs that have been designed to stimulate participation in open access publication with its global community of authors, researchers and members.

UNIT (the Norwegian Directorate for ICT and Joint Services in Higher Education and Research) manages, develops, maintains and operates student information and research information systems and services on behalf of the Norwegian higher education sector and Norwegian research communities, such as national research institutes and health care institutions.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people. The Society is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a specialist in scientific information solutions (including SciFinder® and STN®), its CAS division powers global research, discovery and innovation. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

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