Scholarly communications is dominated by a handful of very large publishers, with just five companies producing the majority of academic papers. But publishing isn’t unidimensional — there are hundreds of smaller publishers with their own missions, specializations, and legacies, and researchers have much to gain by connecting with them. As we move toward an author-centric, open-access future, we want to explore how we can reflect and support this diversity of academic publishing on our own platform. That’s why we’re so excited to partner with Rockefeller University Press (RUP).

RUP’s journals rank among the oldest in the U.S., with articles dating back to 1896. But its approach to publishing is distinctly forward-looking — from establishing read-and-publish agreements with academic networks to participating in initiatives like Research4Life, RUP has pioneered sustainable and inclusive open-access models among smaller publishers.

Our partnership will see all immediate open-access content from three RUP journals — Journal of Cell Biology, Journal of Experimental Medicine, and Journal of General Physiology — made available on ResearchGate on publication. For our members, this will provide seamless discovery of and access to groundbreaking research and archived journal content on the ResearchGate platform. In turn, this direct line from our network of more than 20 million researchers to RUP versions of record, will provide RUP and its authors with valuable insights on how their publications are used and the engagement they generate.

Our partnerships with larger publishers – such as Wiley and Springer Nature – have shown that together we can improve the researcher experience while adding considerable value to the scholarly publishing ecosystem. As we deepen our relationship with RUP we’re keen to explore how we can support publishers working at a smaller scale in achieving greater impact.