Information about the former Transformative Journals program

Several of ACS’ hybrid journals – publications which include a mix of open access and subscription content – were classified as Transformative Journals under Plan S. The main features of a transformative journal included:

• A long-term commitment to becoming fully open access, ‘flipping’ when publishing a minimum of 75% open access content
• Regular, transparent reporting to authors on the performance of their article – including views, downloads, and other usage information
• Advocating the benefits of open access to researchers and institutions
• Full pricing transparency, including reporting on how article processing charges are offset against subscription prices until the journal becomes fully open access
• Providing authors with a range of publication models so they can meet the requirements of their institutions and funders

 

ACS Transformative Journal Report: 2023

ACS Transformative Journal Report: 2024
Please note: percentages may change between reports due to retrospective OA.

• 8 of 30 journals hit the 2022-2023 Transformative Journal (TJ) target (27%)
• Total OA growth in hybrid journals (CC BY licensed content only) from 10 to 14%
• Total OA growth in hybrid journals from 14 to 17% on all CC licensed content (including CC BY-NC-ND)
• Total OA growth in hybrid journals from 51% in 2022 to 57% in 2023 in Europe; from 10% in 2022 to 18% in 2023 in North America, and from 5% in 2022 to 27% in 2023 in Africa; all other continents stayed flat
• Over our total portfolio (including OA journals), open access accounted for 23% of our published content, up from 21% in 2022

Transparent pricing

ACS Publications strives to set fair prices for its journals and to avoid customers paying a subscription fee for content that has become Open Access (OA) through article publishing charges (APCs).

For journals that publish both subscription and OA articles, the journal’s subscription list price is affected only by changes in non-OA content. Open access articles are not considered when setting the subscription price, nor are APCs affected by non-OA articles. Subscription prices use downloads as one aspect as well. All downloads associated with open access are excluded from any pricing calculation.

We consider a number of other factors when setting subscription prices, changes in the number of journals, issues, etc., usage patterns, costs, and other economic factors.