Berlin (Germany) and San Francisco (USA) June 5, 2025 – ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, and PLOS, a leading nonprofit Open Access publisher, today announced the activation of the Open Access Agreement Upgrade (OAAU) as an extension of their Journal Home partnership for PLOS’s 14 journals.

The OAAU offers a highly effective way to communicate with researchers about the availability of open access (OA) funding through institutional agreements. By increasing the visibility of available funding, PLOS aims to attract more diverse authors internationally. This particularly includes researchers in low and middle income countries eligible for their Global Equity agreement. The OAAU makes it clear to researchers where they are eligible for OA funding through institutional agreements, or where they are eligible for automatic fee waivers (for Research4Life countries).

The OAAU offers PLOS:

• Increased engagement of authors throughout their research cycle, influencing high quality submissions and publications in the journals.
• A unique understanding of the number of researchers in eligible institutions globally that are relevant to PLOS’ 14 journals, based on their publishing history and areas of research.
• The opportunity to target messaging specific to individual PLOS journals, delivering contextual and useful messaging for individual researchers. 
• Timely delivery of communication, with personalised, always-on messaging across member touchpoints on ResearchGate.
• Unique reporting and analytics that will help PLOS measure the volume and effectiveness of messaging about their agreements at each stage of the publishing journey – from readership all the way through to authorship.

“The OAAU presents a new opportunity to increase OA uptake among diverse researcher communities, in particular to those where funding is least available,” said Niamh O’Connor, Chief Publishing Officer, PLOS. “By removing cost as a barrier to choose OA, we aim to create a more equitable research landscape that benefits all.”

“It’s fantastic to see PLOS expand their Journal Home partnership to activate the OAAU, fostering greater visibility for their innovative equitable funding model,” said Sören Hofmayer, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at ResearchGate. “The OAAU presents PLOS with a route to accelerate the uptake of OA in under-represented countries and regions, delivering transformative change in our industry.”  

For more information about Journal Home, please visit researchgate.net/journal-home

For more information about ResearchGate, please visit www.researchgate.net

For more information about PLOS, please visit https://plos.org/

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About ResearchGate

ResearchGate is the professional network for researchers. Over 25 million researchers use researchgate.net to share and discover research, build their networks, and advance their careers. Based in Berlin, ResearchGate was founded in 2008. Its mission is to connect the world of science and make research open to all.

ResearchGate Media Contact:

press@researchgate.net

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About the Public Library of Science (PLOS)

PLOS is a nonprofit, open access publisher empowering researchers to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication. Since our founding in 2001, PLOS journals have helped break boundaries in research communication to provide more opportunities, choice, and context for researchers and readers. For more information, visit http://www.plos.org.

PLOS Media Contact:

David Knutson

Head of Communications, PLOS

651-260-8288

dknutson@plos.org