Subscribe to Open threshold met: Journal of General Virology and Journal of Medical Microbiology now Open Access
14 February 2025
The Microbiology Society is pleased to announce that, thanks to the support of subscribing institutions, we have successfully met our sustainability target for the Journal of General Virology and the Journal of Medical Microbiology under the Subscribe to Open (S2O) model for 2025. All content published in these titles in the next year will be published as permanently Open Access (OA).
S2O is an impactful, simple and compliant model. It is internationally recognised and provides a sustainable approach to transitioning subscription-based journals to OA, one year at a time. It is based on existing subscription processes, where subscriptions enable the journal’s transition to OA, meaning that articles published are freely available for all to access.
The Microbiology Society is a membership charity and not-for-profit publisher. Submissions to our titles support our community – income from our journals is re-invested back into our activities – ensuring that we continue to provide events, grants and professional development for microbiologists at all career stages. S2O offers us a stable model to enable OA publishing in subscription titles, supporting increased readership worldwide whilst protecting a journal’s viability and helping us to continue serving our community for years to come.
How does S2O work?
Under the S2O model, subscribers to Journal of Medical Microbiology and the Journal of General Virology are offered continued access to their subscribed titles through the standard renewal process, which takes into account a library’s current budgetary commitments. Provided that enough subscriptions are renewed, the journal is moved to OA for that year. This means that the content of that year becomes openly accessible under Creative Commons CC-BY licence, available for everyone to read.
The following year, subscribers are able to renew via the normal process. If enough subscribers renew again, the journal maintains its OA status for another year.
Why S2O?
S2O is designed to support the sustainable transition to OA through the regular renewals process with full transparency and no additional costs for subscribers. Researchers at subscribing institutions have full access to the subscribed journal archive as well as unlimited OA publishing in that title. Journal of General Virology and Journal of Medical Microbiology rely upon a strong existing subscriber base; S2O offers a more stable model to enable OA publishing in the title without relying on APCs alone, supporting increased usage of Society content worldwide whilst protecting the journal’s viability into the future.
Under the Microbiology Society’s S2O model, authors not covered by an institutional agreement (S2O subscription or Publish and Read agreement) will be required to pay an article processing charge (APC), unless covered by our inclusivity policy.
Check if your institution has an agreement with us and which journals are included on our institutional agreements page.
Benefits of S2O
- S2O titles open newly published content to be accessed by anyone, anywhere in the world, whilst ensuring that the journal can continue to serve its community for years to come.
- Subscribing institutions retain guaranteed access to S2O journal archives (subscriber access only).
- Subscribing institutions secure uncapped OA publishing for their researchers.
- S2O supports our wider portfolio transition to OA, providing broader access to our content and increased usage for authors.
- Via S2O, subscribing institutions actively support the transition of our journals to OA without any additional cost or administration, using the existing renewals process.
For more details on the Microbiology Society S2O model, please see our FAQs page.