ACS Open Science Policies

Open science policies

ACS Publications has a range of policies relating to open science, including research data and supporting the scientific record.

ACS strongly endorses The FAIR Data Principles and believes that where ethically and legally feasible, all research data should be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. We support the Center for Open Science’s Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines, the Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles, and the STM Brussels Declaration. Additionally, ACS is a member of the Research Data Alliance.

All ACS Publications are subject to our Research Data Policy, including a requirement for Data Availability Statements in some journals: see the Research Data Policy site for more information, and read the ACS Axial post for further background information.

ACS provides the following benefits in support of ACS authors and the scientific record.

  • Researchers, faculty, and students at institutions worldwide enjoy access to articles published in ACS journals through institutional subscriptions at pricing specifically tailored for the different sizes, types, and geographical locations of their institutions. ACS members may exercise the privilege of subscribing to print and electronic journals at substantial discounts.
  • Any non-subscriber may purchase an individual article of interest for a nominal fee or obtain an article free of charge on request via interlibrary loan.
  • All ACS journals publish the latest scientific research articles, much of which is available as open access at no cost to readers. ACS journals are classified as either fully open access (publishing 100% open access articles) or transformative (publishing a combination of open access and subscription-access articles, with the proportion of open access research articles increasing over time).
  • Through the ACS Articles on Request program, any ACS author can e-mail or post a link on personal or institutional Web sites to direct readers to the published version of the final article on the ACS Web site, with no fee entailed. Readers who do not have subscription access privileges enjoy seamless access readily via these author-directed links, with unlimited article downloads provided 12 months after article publication.
  • Authors worldwide appreciate the benefit of publishing in the Society’s preeminent journals without the need to pay any manuscript submission or processing fees, page charges, or color reproduction costs.
  • Participation in the GetFTR initiative to streamline access to research articles.

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