TUBITAK –The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Open Access Article Publishing Agreement

Access to electronic journals belonging to The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has been provided as of January 1, 2026 within the scope of the EKUAL Project conducted by TUBITAK ULAKBIM. As of 2026, Article Processing Charge (APC) support is provided for a specific number of articles through a "Read & Publish" model, covering both content access and Open Access (OA) publishing.

Since there is a fixed quota for OA articles under the "TUBITAK-RSC Read & Publish Agreement," specific criteria have been established regarding the articles eligible for APC support:

1. As long as the agreement is active, OA applications can be made for articles accepted in Hybrid and Gold journals.
2. Articles accepted prior to January 1, 2026, will not be considered within the scope of this agreement.
3. For articles accepted for publication between January 1, 2026, and the date the contract was signed (February), a retrospective conversion to Open Access may be requested.
4. For the 2026-2028 period, the total annual national quotas for Gold (fully open access) and Hybrid journals are as follows:  
    2026: Gold + Hybrid /255, 2027: Gold + Hybrid /260, 2028: Gold + Hybrid /260
5. If an article is accepted and the RSC licensing system determines it is eligible for OA publication, the process will be managed on a "first-come, first-served" basis.    
6. An OA application can only be made upon acceptance if the agreement is currently active; if the agreement is not active, an OA application cannot be submitted. 
7. Regardless of whether the agreement is active, if the quota has been exhausted at the time of acceptance, the APC fee will be the responsibility of the author.

8. If an article is accepted in a Hybrid journal but the agreement benefits are no longer available, the author has the option to publish the article free of charge under traditional closed access. For Gold journals, paying the APC remains mandatory. 
9. Per the RSC journal/author system, each year’s quota operates independently; an accepted article cannot utilize the quota from a previous or subsequent year.
10. According to the terms of the agreement, there is no specific OA quota allocation for individual institutions.
11. Before submitting to a journal, it is recommended to check whether the journal is Hybrid or Gold and to review the steps outlined in the "Author Application Process Help File."