MPS and Copernicus Publications sign new contract

German research organisation Max Planck Society (MPS) has signed an agreement with Copernicus Publications, in an effort to support open-access-compatible publishing of its scientists. The MPS will pay the service charges for articles submitted by MPS scientists, which are subsequently published in open access journals, out of central funds.

With 17 peer-reviewed journals and 10 access-reviewed discussion forums, Copernicus Publications is claimed to be the largest open access publisher in the Geo- and Earth system sciences. Most of its journals use an innovative two-stage publication process. This offers free accessibility to reviewer reports as well as comments of the scientific community alongside a discussion paper with the aim to develop the revision towards a very high quality journal article.