Royal Society Open Science

Royal Society Open Science
Title	Royal Society Open Science
Discipline	Multidisciplinary science
Abbreviation	RSOS
Publisher	Royal Society
Country	United Kingdom
History	2014–present
Frequency	Continuous

Royal Society Open Science is a peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal published by the Royal Society that covers a broad range of research across the natural and social sciences. Launched in 2014, it was designed to provide a venue for rapid, rigorous publication spanning fields represented by institutions such as University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Imperial College London, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The journal aims to integrate approaches reflected in the work of organizations like the European Research Council, Wellcome Trust, National Institutes of Health, Natural Environment Research Council, and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

History

The creation of the journal in 2014 followed discussions among bodies including the Royal Society, Science Council, Academy of Medical Sciences, and editorial leaders with backgrounds at outlets such as Nature (journal), Science (journal), PLOS ONE, and Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Early governance drew on precedents set by publishers like Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Wiley-Blackwell. Its launch coincided with initiatives by funders including the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to promote open access, and with policy shifts exemplified by the Finch Report and mandates from entities like Research Councils UK and the European Commission. Subsequent developments included editorial board expansions involving academics linked to University College London, King's College London, ETH Zurich, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley.

Scope and Aims

The journal publishes original research, reviews, replication studies, and registered reports crossing traditional boundaries represented by departments at Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, and California Institute of Technology. Its scope spans work relevant to stakeholders such as the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Max Planck Society, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Australian Research Council, and National Science Foundation (US). Aims emphasize transparency and reproducibility, reflecting recommendations from panels like the Reproducibility Project and reports by the Academy of Sciences and think tanks including the Wellcome Trust. The journal seeks to attract submissions informed by datasets associated with projects such as the Human Genome Project, Large Hadron Collider, Hubble Space Telescope, and CERN collaborations.

Editorial and Peer Review Process

Editorial leadership includes associate editors and subject-area editors with backgrounds at institutions such as University of Edinburgh, University of Toronto, McGill University, ETH Zurich, and University of Sydney. The peer review process admits specialist reviewers drawn from networks that include members of societies like the American Association for the Advancement of Science, British Academy, Royal Society of Chemistry, Institute of Physics, and Society for Experimental Biology. Modes of review have featured single-blind, double-blind, and open review experiments influenced by models used at PLOS ONE, eLife, PeerJ, and F1000Research. Editorial policies incorporate guidance from bodies such as the Committee on Publication Ethics and align with standards advocated by the Open Researcher and Contributor ID initiative and the DataCite metadata schema.

Publication Model and Access

The journal operates under an open-access model with article processing charges and waivers akin to policies at PLOS, BMC, and Frontiers Media. It supports preprint posting to servers like arXiv, bioRxiv, and medRxiv and encourages data availability consistent with practices at Dryad, Figshare, and Zenodo. Licensing often uses Creative Commons terms comparable to those promoted by the Creative Commons organization and aligns with open-access mandates from funders such as the Wellcome Trust and the European Research Council.

Abstracting and Indexing

Content is indexed in major services and databases similar to indexing by Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed Central, CrossRef, and Google Scholar. The journal’s metadata integrates with infrastructures like ORCID, DataCite, DOAJ, and aggregator platforms used by libraries at institutions such as Yale University Library, British Library, and the Library of Congress.

Reception and Impact

Reception among scholars referenced from Princeton, Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, and Stanford has been shaped by debates over broad-scope open-access models exemplified by PLOS ONE and critiques aired in venues such as Nature (journal), Science (journal), and The Lancet. Citation and altmetric performance have been compared against journals like Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, eLife, and Royal Society Publishing titles. The journal's role in promoting reproducibility and data sharing has been highlighted by panels including the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee and advocacy groups like the Center for Open Science.

Notable Articles and Special Collections

The journal has published interdisciplinary articles and themed collections on topics connected to projects such as the Human Microbiome Project, IPCC-related climate analyses, and work relevant to the International HapMap Project and Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Special collections have featured contributions from researchers affiliated with NASA, European Southern Observatory, World Health Organization, UNESCO, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and have included studies that intersect with initiatives like the Global Carbon Project and the CERN Open Data Portal.

Category:Academic journals Category:Open access journals Category:Royal Society publications