Taylor & Francis Group is marking Open Access week by announcing a range of new Open Access journals and an enhancement of their current Open Access programme for 2012. These initiatives will encompass publications from across the range of science, social and behavioural sciences and humanities subjects.

Taylor & Francis' current iOpenAccess option will be renamed for 2012 as Taylor & Francis Open Select and will continue to give authors and their sponsors the option of making their articles available on Open Acess to all for a publication fee. This initiative has been running since 2006 and currently encompasses 500 titles from across Taylor & Francis Group's extensive portfolio.

In addition, three cutting-edge titles currently available on a subscription basis will be converted to full Open Access for 2012. The digital archives of these titles will also be made Open Access.  These titles - Green Chemistry Letters and Reviews, Journal of Biological Dynamics, Smart and Nano Materials - publish significant research in their fields and have author communities with a strong interest in publishing research in an Open Access model.

Taylor & Francis will also be launching Taylor & Francis Open.  This initiative will cover all our fully Open Access titles.  One important part of this initiative is a new series of fully Open Access titles from 2012 in major subject areas. These titles will offer rapid online publication of methodologically sound research which will be subject to rigorous peer review.  The journals will have affordable article publication fees, with discounts or fee waivers for emergent countries.  The initiative will also involve collaboration with leading journals within T&F's existing portfolio, along with support from learned societies and internationally acclaimed editors, ensuring the quality of these titles.

Commenting on this initiative, Professor Nick Quirke, Editor of the journals Molecular Simulation and Journal of Experimental Nanoscience, stated, "The new open access suite of journals being offered in Taylor & Francis Open will allow universal access to high quality academic literature, opening it up to all of the scientific community to benefit from the research."

Details of these titles, their supporting journals and their editors will be released in the coming weeks, so watch this space for more information.

In addition to these broad-spectrum titles, Taylor & Francis will also:

  • launch Journal of Organic Semiconductors on a full Open Access basis for 2012;
  • launch a major new financial economics title on a full Open Access basis for 2012;
  • announce in the next month a publishing partnership with an established major health and social care full Open Access title;
  • continue our publishing partnership with Kotuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, an established fully Open Access journal currently published under the Routledge imprint in cooperation with the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Dr David Green, Global Journals Publishing Director, sums up Taylor & Francis' new approaches to Open Access, "Taylor & Francis is committed to producing high-calibre journals that showcase quality global research. We believe that this content should be widely disseminated and are now exploring various Open Access business models to enable universal access in ways that are sustainable and meet the needs of the research communities we serve. We feel the time is right to increase the scope of our Open Access offerings to sit alongside the cost-effective subscription and licensing options we offer to libraries.  Over the past three years society journals have been partnering with Taylor & Francis Group at the rate of more than one per week, and, if required, we are now able to offer a potential partner a range of Open Access business models where there is real author demand and we can ensure viability and sustainability".