ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, today announced a significant new upgrade to its Journal Home product for publishers, with the introduction of the Open Access Agreement Upgrade (OAAU).
This new feature enables publisher partners to identify and effectively communicate with relevant researchers about funding for publishing that they are eligible for through Open Access Agreements (also referred to as Transformative Agreements, Transitional Agreements or Read & Publish Agreements) – driving greater awareness and uptake of open access publishing.
With more than 1,000 Open Access Agreements across 70+ countries worldwide, publishers have continued to scale the number of Open Access Agreements available to support open access growth.
However, many publishers report that it is very difficult to effectively communicate with individual researchers about agreements, with limited options to target the right researchers at the right time. This communication gap has left many researchers unaware of Open Access Agreements or what they offer.
In a survey of over 2,000 researchers globally, ResearchGate found that nearly half (48%) were not at all familiar with such agreements. Even those that do know about Open Access Agreements struggle to understand if they are eligible, or how to access funding when they are.
Journal Home’s new Open Access Agreement Upgrade addresses these challenges, providing publishers with a powerful solution to reach eligible researchers more effectively and at scale.
The upgrade provides publishers with:
- Unprecedented reach to eligible researchers: ResearchGate’s individually-assigned institutional data ensures that publishers can now connect with researchers at participating institutions more accurately.
- Contextual education: Journal Home’s unique network functionality enables publishers to deliver Open Access Agreement messaging relevant to the individual journal that a researcher is actively engaging with on ResearchGate.
- Continuous engagement throughout the research lifecycle: The OAAU enables continuous, personalised communication at the individual researcher level at the right point in their publishing journey. Whether they’re reading an article, visiting a journal profile, searching in their feed, or updating their own profile, publishers can help potential authors get the support to publish open access through an agreement.
- Unique insights: publishers gain access to Journal Home’s unique reporting and analytics, enabling them to measure the reach and effectiveness for their Open Access Agreements at each stage of the publishing journey from readership to authorship.
A range of publishers have already activated this new upgrade, including Wiley, Taylor & Francis, IOP Publishing, De Gruyter, Sage Publications, BMJ, Optica, The Royal Society, Rockefeller University Press, Trans Tech and Royal Society of Chemistry.
“Our publisher partners have highlighted how difficult it is to consistently communicate to the right researchers that they are eligible for open access funding support through Open Access Agreements,” said Mathias Astell, VP of Commercial Products, ResearchGate. “Traditional channels and tools often fall short due to limited targeting, high costs for individual campaigns, and lack of data. Journal Home’s OAAU overcomes these challenges by integrating agreement messaging into our researcher-centric ecosystem, where researchers have already verified their institutional affiliations and are actively engaging with the journals they know and trust. This approach means messages are always-on, and delivered at the right time to be useful for researchers and effective for publishers.”
Early adopters of the OAAU are already seeing strong results, continuously reaching researchers in more than 90% of the institutions covered by their agreements within the first six months.
“Journal Home has consistently delivered great value to our partners by increasing journal visibility, usage and authorship through the ResearchGate platform, and delivering unique insights on researcher engagement”, said Sören Hofmayer, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at ResearchGate. “Now, the OAAU enables publishers to further harness these capabilities to build momentum for open access through their institutional agreements. This is a groundbreaking opportunity to drive forward open access adoption!”
For more information about Journal Home, please visit researchgate.net/journal-home
