Search Results for: open access

Open Access

All historians should want their work to be as accessible as possible – and so they ought to support ‘open access’ (i.e. free access to their work posted on the web), wherever possible. The Royal Historical Society has recently launched its own monographic series New Historical Perspectives under Open Access protocols, demonstrating its own institutional commitment to broad access to historical scholarship. Nonetheless, in the present national and international publishing landscape, there are limits to what is possible without sacrificing academic freedom and quality. Peer-review and publication do not come free – there are costs involved in reviewing and editing your work, mounting it on the web, sending it to journals for review and otherwise advertising its publication. Furthermore, authors have for decades enjoyed certain moral rights to have their work properly used, reproduced and attributed.  Not all forms of ‘open access’ respect these rights, nor have their virtues or demerits been subject to systematic scrutiny in recent OA discussions. What follows is a very rough guide to a complicated and ever-changing landscape.  In the British context recent (spring 2018) policy developments around the Research Excellence Framework and Open Access have rendered an already complex situation potentially even moreso: you can find commentary from the Royal Historical Society on some specific challenges arising here, and for a more extended analysis, the recent (May 2018) statement from the British Academy is well worth reading too.

Manuscripts

15th-century_paintersYou have the right to do whatever you want with your own manuscripts (drafts of papers, conference presentations, etc.), so long as you’re not using content that belongs to other people (e.g. images, music, major portions of copyright works).   Why not post them on your own website or a site such as academia.edu?  But you will need to consider what rights over your own content you wish to give to others.  You’ll need to indicate the terms on which you are posting. If you say ‘all rights reserved’, then you are of course permitting others to read your work, but not to use it in any other way.  If you are happy for others to use your work – for example, to copy and distribute it – Creative Commons has designed a range of licences that you can use to indicate exactly what uses you are happy to permit (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/). The most popular of these licences among humanities scholars tends to be CC  BY-NC ND. This allows others to copy your work in full and distribute it intact, but not to alter it or to combine it with their other work in ways that make it difficult to distinguish yours from theirs, and not to make use of it commercially. Just add the relevant CC logo to your paper when you upload it to show under what terms you are making it available.

Dissertations

This is a particularly vexing subject.  Most universities are now developing institutional policies for dissertations produced by their own students, but these vary widely.  All universities require you to deposit your dissertation in their libraries (or, increasingly, their online repositories), but many offer ‘embargoes’ that prevent others from accessing your work without your permission for a period of 2-6 years or longer. This is because, in our discipline, dissertations do not (as they often do in the sciences) bring together work that has been published elsewhere in article form, and they are often seen only as rough drafts for a book that will eventually be published.  It’s not clear whether the availability of your dissertation will interfere with your ability to publish a book based on it. So the embargo gives you some control over the dissemination of your work until it is published. The American Historical Association encourages universities to permit embargoes of up to 6 years (see https://www.historians.org/resource/statement-on-policies-regarding-the-option-to-embargo-completed-history-phd-dissertations/). You should find out for yourself what is your own institution’s policy.

Journal articles

This is the area where open access has extended furthest (reflecting the centrality of the journal article in the sciences, where the open access movement began, and upon which many policies are based). Funding bodies are now often mandating open access – that is, if they pay for your research, and you publish it in the form of a journal article, you must make it open access according to certain prescribed conditions. So your approach to your own journal articles will depend on who (if anyone) has paid for you to do your research. The RHS has prepared information sheets explaining the open-access conditions for those funded by the research councils (e.g. AHRC, ESRC) – which are particularly stringent – and those employed on teaching and research contracts by universities who are eligible for submission to the REF.  A good general rule of thumb – you don’t need to pay an ‘Article Processing Charge’ (APC) or any other publication fee in order to ensure ‘open access’ for your article. Any publisher that insists on payment without offering free open-access options merits the closest scrutiny.

Books

Politics of GenderThere are at present no mandates from any UK funders of historical research (except for the Wellcome Trust who fund research in the history of medicine) requiring open access for work published in book form, including chapters in collections of essays.  (Some mandates refer to ‘conference proceedings’, but this refers to journal-like forms of publication common in the sciences and does not cover collections of essays published as books, even if they derive from conferences.)  Because publication of books is a good deal more expensive than publication of articles, there are formidable barriers to providing open access for books in ways that do not discriminate against un- or under-funded historians (i.e. most of us!).  However, the recent policy developments described above, and in particular the likely requirement that ‘a proportion’ of long-form (i.e. book-length) research be published in Open Access form to be eligible for the REF exercise of 2027, is (potentially) a major change in practice, with clear implications for Early Career Historians. The Royal Historical Society is closely involved in this important transition, and is happy to provide informal advice to colleagues with specific enquiries, even if the current uncertainty of some important policy outcomes makes hard-and-fast recommendations extremely difficult at this stage.

 

Publishing and Open Access

The Royal Historical Society is actively engaged in ongoing debates about the future of arts and humanities publishing. Overseen by its Publications Committee, the Society is both a publisher of scholarly history and a leading participant in debates over Open Access publishing — with reference to the benefits and limitations for individual researchers and learned societies.

The Society’s Publications Committee is chaired by Dr Kate Bradley (University of Kent).

Open Access Policy Work

The RHS engages closely with wider debates about Open Access publishing, and the implications of OA policies for historians and learned societies:

UKRI and Open Access for those receiving research funding

Plan S and its implications for historians

  • October 2019: RHS Guidance Paper Plan S and the History Journal Landscape. This report is designed to assist History and broader Humanities & Social Sciences stakeholders to understand and navigate the current policy frontiers of open access publishing for peer reviewed scholarly journals.
  • July 2019: Interim Working Paper Plan S and the Hybrid History Journal Landscape: a preliminary mapping of current preparedness for Plan S open access implementation among UK and international ‘hybrid’ History journals and designed to elicit further evidence, feedback and corrections for a more comprehensive analysis to be published in October 2019.
  • May 2019: response to the Updated Guidance on Plan S, available here.
  • April 2019: RHS published a Working Paper assessing the implications of Plan S compliance for history researchers, focusing particularly on those with Wellcome funding.
  • February 2019: we submitted a response to the consultation on the ‘Plan S’ open-access initiative, which is available here.
  • January 2019: publication of a briefing paper, call for evidence and interim report, available here.

Publishing and the Research Excellence Framework

In early 2018, the government announced that for REF2027 policies on open access journal articles would be extended to include monographs.

Data management and scholarly communications

 

RHS Submits Response to UKRI Open Access Review

The RHS has made a substantial response to the UKRI Open Access Review, the outcome of which will determine open access policies for the UK Research Councils and inform the requirements for outputs submitted to the REF after REF2021.

Full information about the UKRI consultation is available here: https://www.ukri.org/funding/information-for-award-holders/open-access/open-access-review/.

Download the Royal Historical Society’s full response to the consultation here.

 

Society’s journal ‘Transactions’ now fully Open Access

From 21 August 2024, the Society’s journal, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, becomes fully Open Access.

This means that all articles accepted for publication in the journal will now be automatically published with a Creative Commons licence and freely available to read online. This will ensure that content published in Transactions can be shared, circulated and read by the widest possible readership.

There will be no charge to the author for publishing an article in this way. The costs of open access publication will be covered through agreements between the journal’s publisher, Cambridge University Press, and the author’s institution; or by payment of Article Processing Charges (APCs) from grant or other funds held by the author; or else waived entirely by the publisher, ensuring every Transactions author can publish and receive the benefits of having their work available Open Access.

We very much hope this initiative will encourage a growing range of submissions from authors, worldwide, including those who practice history outside Higher Education, in related sectors or as independent researchers.

To accompany Transactions‘ move to full Open Access, the editor — Jan Machielsen — writes for the RHS blog about his experience of editing the journal, and looks ahead to forthcoming content.

Submitting an article to Transactions

Transactions is the flagship academic journal of the Royal Historical Society. First published in 1872, Transactions has been publishing the highest quality scholarship in History for more than 150 years.

Today’s journal publishes a wide range of research articles and commentaries on historical approaches, practice and debate. In addition to traditional 10-12,000 word research articles, Transactions also welcomes shorter, innovative commentary articles. In 2023, we introduced ‘The Common Room’—a section of the journal dedicated to commentaries and think pieces by academic historians and history practitioners.

The journal welcomes submissions dealing with any geographical area, from the early middle ages to the very recent past. We also invite articles from authors at every career stage. In line with the Society’s commitment to supporting postgraduate and early career historians, the journal seeks to engage constructively and positively with first-time authors.

The journal’s editorial team provides prompt responses and peer review. Articles are published with Cambridge University Press, online via CUP’s FirstView, and in an annual volume.

If you’re currently researching an article or a think piece, please consider Transactions as the journal in which to publish your work. Articles may be submitted here.

 

Society submits response to REF2029 Open Access Consultation

The Royal Historical Society has today submitted a response to the Research Excellence Framework 2029 open access consultation.

The consultation, launched in March 2024, proposes the extension of open access requirements for eligible publications for REF2029. The proposals relate both to journal articles and, now, what REF terms ‘longform’ publications, principally monographs, edited collections, book chapters and scholarly editions. These formats are a very significant part of History, and Humanities publishing, and comprised 55% of publication submissions for History for the previous REF (2021).

  • The Royal Historical Society’s statement on the consultation is available here. This Society’s response draws on answers provided by RHS members to a Survey (conducted in May 2024) on attitudes to open access and the REF more widely.
  • Further information on the REF2029 OA proposals is available here; these were the subject of a Society blog post published in March.

In its response to the consultation, the Society expresses concern about the scale and pace of the proposals, especially with regard to mandatory OA publication of books for which the necessary infrastructure, resources and financial support are absent.

The Society believes REF’s OA proposals for book publishing go too far, too fast. We are concerned that mandating these proposals will alienate humanities academics, and their support networks, and risks delegitimising REF as a measure and reward of research excellence in the opinion of those it seeks to assess.

We therefore recommend that REF’s OA proposals for books are not mandated for the next research exercise; rather the next cycle is used to explore sustainable future models that increase access to high-quality research.

The closing date for responses to the REF OA proposals is Monday 17 June 2024.

IMAGE HEADER: Credit: Natalie_ iStock

 

New and forthcoming titles in the Society’s Open Access book series

Now available, in print and online, Gender, Emotions and Power, 1750–2020 — edited by Hannah Parker and Josh Dyble — is the latest title in the Royal Historical Society’s New Historical Perspectives book series. This new collection offers a timely intervention into contemporary debates on emotions, gender, race and power by asking: ‘how are emotional expectations established as gendered, racialised and class-based notions’?

Chronologically and geographically broad, the essays cover settler colonies in southern Africa, post-unification Italy, Maoist China, the Soviet Union and British Raj, among others. Collectively the essays consider how emotional expectations have been generated, stratified and maintained by institutions, societies, media and those with access to power.

Gender, Emotions and Power, 1750–2020 is the 17th title in the Society’s New Historical Perspectives series for early career historians within 10 years of completing a PhD at a UK or Irish university. All titles are published online as Open Access editions and in paperback print with Open Access fees covered by the series partners: the Royal Historical Society, Institute of Historical Research and University of London Press. For more on the series, and how to submit a proposal, please see here.

 

 

 

Forthcoming titles in the series, available in 2024, include Martin Sypchal’s Mapping the State. English Boundaries and the 1832 Reform Act and Rachel E. Johnson’s Women’s Voices and Historical Silences in South Africa. Young Women and Youth Activism in the Anti-Apartheid Struggle.

Full online access to all of the titles is available via University of London Press.

 

 

25th title published in the Society’s ‘New Historical Perspectives’ Open Access book series

The Society is very pleased to announce publication, today, of the 25th title in its ‘New Historical Perspectives’ book series: Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society. The Palmers’ Guild of Ludlow, by Rachael Harkes.

Rachael’s new book draws on the vast archive of the Palmers’ Guild in Ludlow to explore the extent and impact of religious guilds in urban and rural society on the eve of the Reformation. To accompany publication of her monograph, Rachael also writes about her research this week for the Society’s blog.

As with all 25 titles in the New Historical Perspectives series, Forging Fraternity is published as a free Open Access download and in paperback print by University of London Press. Rachael’s book follows the 24th title in the series — Gareth Roddy’s Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880–1940 — which appeared last month.

‘New Historical Perspectives’ is a collaborative publishing project of the Royal Historical Society, University of London Press and the Institute of Historical Research, with further support from the Economic History Society. Previous generous support for the series was also provided by the Past & Present Society.

The series publishes new work by early career historians within 10 years of completing their PhD in the form of monographs and edited collections.

Founded by the historians Simon Newman and Penny Summerfield in the late 2010s, the Series is now co-edited by Elizabeth Hurren (University of Leicester) and Sarah Longair (University of Lincoln), assisted by an editorial board. The first title in the NHP series, Ed Owens’ The Family Firm Monarchy, Mass Media and the British Public, 1932-53, was published in 2019. Full details of all 25 titles, and links to their Open Access editions, are available here.

All authors contracted to the series receive mentoring from members of the NHP editorial board. In addition, they receive a workshop, with specialist readers and co-editors, to review and discuss a near complete manuscript before a final draft is submitted to the publisher.

All titles in the series are published Open Access, as pdf downloads and in a Manifold Reader editions, with no charge to the author, to ensure the widest possible dissemination of new historical research. As of summer 2025, titles in the NHP series have been downloaded on nearly 200,000 occasions.

Submissions to the series are welcome from early career historians, within 10 years of a PhD from a UK or Irish university. The Series Editors and Editorial Board welcome proposals for new NHP titles via the NHP book proposal form. Completed proposal forms should be submitted to the University of London Press publisher, Dr Emma Gallon: [email protected].

 

Research Excellence Framework 2029

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the current evaluation system for assessing research in UK Higher Education institutions (HEIs). It was first conducted in 2014 and again in 2021. The REF is undertaken by a dedicated team on behalf of, and reporting to, the four UK higher education funding bodies: Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland.

REF outcomes inform the allocation of around £2bn of block-grant research funding to HEIs each year.

The last REF took place in 2021 (with outcomes published in May 2022). For REF2021, History was one of 34 ‘Units of Assessment’. The next REF was originally intended to take place in 2028. Following an announcement in December 2023, this date has now been put back to 2029. Planning for REF 2029 is now underway. Interpreting, commenting on, and communicating the remit and structure of REF 2029 is a central focus of the Royal Historical Society’s Research Policy Committee in the months to come.

This page provides further information on current planning for the next assessment, REF 2029. In addition, it summarises the Society’s responses to consultations and guides for historians on behalf of the discipline.

The structure of the remainder of this page is broadly chronological as next stages of REF2029 are opened up for discussion or are announced. Not all REF developments since 2023 are listed here; for this we recommend REF2029’s own timetable and website. Further information will be added as planning progresses and further information becomes available.

About REF2029

In June 2023, the REF team announced its high-level design for this next exercise. This included important changes to the model employed for REF2021. Principal among these changes are:

1. Composition of those included in a Unit of Assessment

REF 2029 will break the identification of research outputs with individual researchers submitted to the exercise within their Units of Research. Instead a so-called volume measure of all researchers and research-enabling staff with significant responsibility for research will be calculated as the average FTE within the Unit for eligible staff, taken at two census dates. Units will be required to submit 2.5x outputs for every 1.0 FTE of volume-contributing staff. There will be no minimum or maximum contribution from any individual within the Unit.

2. Redesign and re-weighting of the elements of assessment, as follows

  • People, Culture and Environment (25% weighting), replacing the environment element of REF 2014 and 2021, and will be expanded to include an assessment of research culture.
  • Contribution to knowledge and understanding (50% weighting), broadening the ‘outputs’ element of REF 2014 and 2021. Assessment will continue to be largely based on submitted outputs, but at least 10% of the profile will be based on evidence of broader contributions to discipline.
  • Engagement and impact (25% weighting), replacing the ‘impact’ elements of REF 2014 and 2021, and combining both impact case studies and an accompanying statement on engagement activity beyond case studies.

Planning for REF 2029: responding to the Future Research Assessment Programme (FRAP, October 2023)

In June 2023, the REF team invited responses to its high-level design for the next assessment exercise. This design and review phase is the Future Research Assessment Programme, known as FRAP. Responses were invited to specific questions on aspects of the design, while noting that many aspects of REF 2029 (including those set out above) were not open for discussion. The June 2023 call for responses to FRAP is available here.

In October 2023, the Royal Historical Society issued its response which is available in full here. This response includes commentaries from, and is supported by, the Institute of Historical Research, the Economic History Society and the Past & Present Society. The RHS response also follows discussions with other UK historical organisations and learned societies.

 

 

In addition to the full response, the Society has produced an overview and commentary (‘Preparing for REF 2029’ available on the RHS blog) on the high-level design for REF 2029. This overview is co-written by Professor Jonathan Morris (RHS Vice-President for Research, to November 2023) and Professor Barbara Bombi (RHS Secretary for Research, from November 2023) who were responsible for the Society’s response to the FRAP consultation.

Initial update on the outcomes from the consultation (December 2023)

On 7 December the REF team issued a first update on its decisions after the Summer 2023 consultation exercise. In addition to postponing the date of the next REF to 2029, this update noted the following:

  • HESA data will be used to determine Volume Measure in the manner set out in the recent consultation exercise
  • breaking the link between individual staff member and unit submission, including removing minimum and maximum outputs submitted by specific individuals, will go ahead.
  • further guidance will be issued on the ‘demonstrable and substantive link’ between an eligible output and the submitting institution within the REF period.
  • outputs sole-authored by PGR students, including PhD theses, will not be eligible for submission, nor will those produced by individuals employed on contracts with no research-related expectations. 
  • the overall Unit of Assessment structure for REF 2029 will remain unchanged from REF 2021. 
  • the minimum number of Impact Case Studies that an institution can submit per disciplinary submission will be reduced to one, with the removal of the 2* quality threshold. 

Consultation on Open Access requirements for REF2029 (March 2024)

On 18 March 2024, the four UK higher education funding bodies opened a consultation concerning the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2029 Open Access Policy. The purpose of the REF 2029 Open Access Policy is to outline open access requirements for the exercise.

This consultation outlines the proposed Open Access policy for REF 2029. The ‘policy aims to embed progress in the sector for open access submission for journal publications. It also introduces an open access requirement for longform publications’. The consultation seeks ‘to gather a deeper understanding of sector perspectives on key issues and impacts in relation to our policy proposals.’

On 12 June 2024, the Society submitted its response to the consultation on Open Access mandates: available here.

Early decisions made on REF2029 Open Access Policy (August 2024)

On 14 August 2024 it was announced that, following consultation, there would be no change to the existing Open Access Policy for REF2029. This means the proposed extension of OA requirements to take in books will not apply in 2029. In the words of the REF statement:

Open access for longform outputs remains a key area of policy interest for the funding bodies but in response to sector concerns, and in recognition of the broad set of challenges currently facing the sector, there will be no longform open access mandate for REF 2029.’ 

An open access requirement for submission of longform outputs will be in place for the next assessment exercise, with implementation from 1 January 2029.

The August 2024 statement also noted that the final terms and conditions for OA compliance, for journal articles and conference proceedings, would be communicated by 1 January 2026.

People, Culture and Environment (PCE) Indicators Survey (June 2024)

On 24 June 2024 REF opened a survey as part of its work to develop indicators to be used for the assessment of the People, Culture and Environment (PCE) element of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2029.

The Society did not submit a response to this survey (which closed on 13 September). A response was submitted and published by the British Academy and is available here.

PCE Pilot, includes History as a case study (December 2024)

2025 will see work on developing the People, Culture and Environment (PCE) element of REF2029. A PCE pilot project will assess the feasibility of selected indicators of a department’s research culture, broadly defined. On 4 December REF defined this work in the following terms.

The pilot project combines responses and reviews by 40 UK higher education institutions and 8 subject panels. History is one of the subjects included as a subject panel. The membership of the History PCE panel was released on 5 December 2024. The panel includes two serving and one former member of the Royal Historical Society’s governing Council.

Release of the final REF2029 OA Policy (December 2024)

On 11 December 2024, REF published its final statement on Open Access for the 2029 exercise.

As stated in August, books / longform publications will not be included in REF2029. Other headline changes include: a reduction of the embargo period for journal articles (in Main Panels C and D, including History), from 24 to 12 months, and a putting back of the implementation date for the new OA elements for REF2029 from 1 January 2025 to 1 January 2026.

 

The Society has published an overview of the statement, which also links to the full document released by REF. The release also includes REF’s summary of the OA consultation in summer 2024.

Calls for chairs, deputy chairs, and members of subject-level sub-panels (December 2024)

On 16 December 2024, REF issued a call for applications to join the subject level sub-panels. These panels (including History, Unit of Assessment, 28) will be responsible for the criteria of assessment (2025-26) and the work of assessing submissions (2026-30) by subject for REF2029.

Applications for chairs and deputy chairs close on 6 February 2025. Applications for panel membership close on 28 April 2025.

The chairs of the Main Panels were also announced in December, including that for Main Panel D (in which History sits).

Royal Historical Society responds to the REF call for panel members (February 2025)

On 13 February 2025, the Society issued a statement on REF’s new approach to panel membership for 2029. While welcoming the bid for greater diversity, we are concerned about how an open call will work in practice, to ensure the depth and breadth of expertise required of the History sub-panel, and how the stark inequalities across the sector will limit opportunities for those seeking panel membership.

 

 

On 7 March the Society also held an information event on becoming a member of the History panel. This followed a general Research England session on sub-panel member, applicable for all subjects, for which a recording is available here.

Key points from the event, relating to becoming a sub-panel member, are summarised in the following blog post: ‘Becoming a member of History Sub-Panel for REF2029: An Introduction and Guide’.

 

REF appoints Chair and Deputy Chair for the History sub-panel (May and June 2025)

In May and June 2025, REF announced chairs and deputies of the 34 subject panels for REF2029. The Chair for History (sub-panel 28) is Professor Jonathan Morris (University of Hertfordshire). In June 2025 Professor Claire Langhamer (Institute of Historical Research, University of London) was announced as the Deputy Chair for History.

Jonathan is Professor of History and Director of Research Culture and Environment at the University of Hertfordshire. A member of the REF2021 History sub-panel, Jonathan is a former Vice-President (Research) for the Royal Historical Society (2018-23). Claire is Director of the Institute of Historical Research in the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and also served on the History sub-panel for REF2021.

REF announces members of the History sub-panel (September 2025)

 

 

Membership of the History Sub-Panel for REF2029 was announced by Research England on Thursday 4 September. Further details are available here.

We hope you find this page useful. If you have comments, or proposals for this page as a resource to support historians ahead of REF2029, please contact the Society’s Director: [email protected].

 

Access to benefits for Fellows and Members of the Royal Historical Society

Your Fellowship / Membership of the Royal Historical Society brings with it a number of benefits and offers. In November 2025, we published a new ‘Guide to Members’ which sets out these opportunities.

On this page we provide details of how Fellows and Members may access selected resources provided as part of your current membership of the Society. This includes access to the Society’s own publications (either free online or with significant reductions on the cost of print editions) and how to make use of the discounts offered to RHS Fellows and Members by selected publishers.

The following access and offers are made available only to current fellows and Members of the Royal Historical Society.

If you have any questions relating to these offers, please email: [email protected].

 

1. Access to RHS publications

Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (University of Cambridge Press)

Current volume
  • Transactions is published once annually as a single volume. As a Fellow or Member of the Society*, you have the choice of receiving this volume either as an online edition or a print edition, available in both formats from late November of each year. *Postgraduate Members of the Society receive the online edition of Transactions by default.
  • Those who are currently registered to receive a print copy of the journal will receive this directly from CUP, from late November, using the postal address we have for you in our records.
Transactions online archive (1872-2025)
  • Your Fellowship / Membership of the Society also includes free access to the complete online archive of Transactions up to and including the current volume.
  • New members of the Society will be sent an email by CUP (from ‘Journals Societies’) shortly after payment of your first subscription fee providing details of how to register and login to Transactions using an ID code specific to the Royal Historical Society and a code number unique to your individual membership.
  • Existing members of the Society are sent each year a reminder email by CUP (from ‘Journals Societies’) providing you with the same information for your individual membership of the Society.
  • To access the Transactions archive, first register with Cambridge Core, then having logged in selected the ‘My Societies’ tab and add the RHS ID code: ID 200022233 and your personal numerical code sent to you by CUP.

Camden Series of primary scholarly editions (University of Cambridge Press)

Latest volumes
  • The Society publishes two or three volumes in its Camden Series each year. Print copies of new, and recent, volumes may be purchased by Fellows / Members of the Society at the discounted rate of £16 per volume.
  • Fellows / Members wishing to purchase a Camden volume should email: [email protected], providing details of name, postal address, the volume/s they seek to purchase, and marking their message ‘Camden’.
Camden Series online archive (1838-2025)
  • Your Fellowship / Membership of the Society also includes free access to the online archive of the 390+ volumes of the Camden Series up to and including the current volume.
  • New members of the Society will be sent an email by CUP (from ‘Journals Societies’) shortly after payment of your first subscription fee providing details of how to register and login to the Camden Series using an ID code specific to the Royal Historical Society and a code number unique to your individual membership.
  • Existing members of the Society are sent each year a reminder email by CUP (from ‘Journals Societies’) providing you with the same information for your individual membership of the Society.
  • To access the Camden Series archive, first register with Cambridge Core, then having logged in selected the ‘My Societies’ tab and add the RHS ID code: ID 200022233 and your personal numerical code sent to you by CUP.

New Historical Perspectives book series (University of London Press)

  • The Society’s book series, New Historical Perspectives, is published Open Access and in paperback print editions. Open Access editions are available as free pdf downloads and in a Manifold digital reader edition.
  • Fellows / Members wishing to purchase print editions of NHP volumes may do so at a 30% discount via the University of London Press website (UK, EU and RoW) and University of Chicago Press website (North America) using the discount code: RHSNHP30

 

2. Access to discounts from selected publishers

Your Fellowship / Membership of the Royal Historical Society Society also includes discounts on purchases from the following partner organisations:

  • 30% off all titles (online and print) published by University of Cambridge Press. This offer is via the CUP website and the discount code: RHS30
  • 30% off all History titles (online and print) published by University of Oxford Press. This offer is via the OUP website and the discount code: WEBSOCRHS 
  • 30% off all titles (print) published by University of London Press. This offer is via the University of London Press website and the discount code: XXXXXX
  • Annual access to the Bibliography of British and Irish History (online), published by Brepols and the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. Individual subscriptions for 12 months (January to December) are available to Fellows / Members of the Society from £25 per person per year. Fellows / Members wishing to purchase a subscription to BBIH should email: [email protected], marking their message ‘BBIH’.
  • 20% off subscriptions to History Today (online and print). Your Fellowship / membership of the Society gives you 20% discount on the print edition (£60 per annum, usually £75 full price); or 20% discount on online subscription to the archive of History Today (£56 per annum, usually £70 full price); or 20% discount on print and online subscription to History Today (£84 per annum, usually £105 full price). Fellows/ Members wishing to purchase a subscription in one of these formats to History Today may do so either on joining the Society (when the option is made available) or when renewing your membership (July each year, when the option is again presented to you).

 

3. Inclusion in the Society’s Members’ Directory

  • The RHS Members’ Directory is an online listing of current Fellows / Members of the Royal Historical Society who choose to appear in this database. The Directory provides information about the research interests of Fellows / Members and is intended to foster networking between Fellows / Members.
  • All current Fellows / Members of the Society may use the Directory, regardless of whether or not they are listed themselves.
  • Details of how to access this resource, and how to add your details if you wish are provided on the front page of the Directory.

 

4. Membership of UCL Library

  • Fellows of the Society are able to register for in-person use of the main library at University College London, where the Society has its office. Library membership enables attendance and use of the Library and in-person access to online resources.
  • This offer is reserved for current Fellows of the Society only.
  • To access this resource, please contact [email protected]

 

5. Guide for Members

Our ‘Guide for Members’ (first published in November 2025) provides further information on how the Society seeks to support you — in areas such as research funding and news — as a Fellow or Member. A copy of the current version of the Guide is available below.

 

Plan S and History Journals

The Royal Historical Society (RHS) has published its new Guidance Paper on ‘Plan S and the History Journal Landscape’ (23 October 2019).

This report is designed to assist History and broader Humanities & Social Sciences stakeholders to understand and navigate the current policy frontiers of open access publishing for peer reviewed scholarly journals.

United Kingdom Research & Innovation (UKRI), the funding body that includes the seven UK research councils as well as Research England, is due to launch two public consultations on open access publication mandates in autumn 2019 and winter 2020.  This consultation process reflects UKRI’s membership of cOAlition S, a consortium of international funders established in 2018 which has articulated a new ‘Plan S’ mandate for open access publication.

The RHS report explains what cOAlition S and Plan S are, and why they matter to Humanities and Social Science researchers, journal editors and learned societies—among other stakeholders.  The report uses granular evidence of peer reviewed History journal publication to examine the potential impacts of Plan S implementation by UKRI.  The report is based on a summer 2019 RHS survey that attracted responses from 107 UK and international History learned society and proprietary journals.  Respondents included both self-publishing journals and journals published by 26 different university and commercial presses.  Additionally, the report uses data from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) to explore open access journal publication in History.

The RHS report notes the existence of a vibrant portfolio of open access peer-reviewed History journals, with especially strong representation in Spain, Portugal and Latin America.  However, these journals do not at present appear to be Plan S ‘compliant’.  More broadly, the report suggests that at present History researchers seeking Plan S compliant journals will find it very challenging, at multiple levels, to identify appropriate publications in which they can publish.

Journal editors are struggling with the complex and highly technical requirements mandated by Plan S.  Many are reluctant or unwilling to change their journals’ policies in response to Plan S.  The report identifies specific groups of researchers, including early career historians, for whom Plan S-aligned open access mandates may be problematic.

In the context of the forthcoming UKRI consultation, the report offers specific recommendations for:

  • History researchers (including early career historians)
  • journal editors and editorial boards
  • learned societies
  • research organisations
  • funders     

Download the full report.

If the goal of OA instead is to build sustainable scholarly systems which—at scale—are capable of both equitably producing and delivering high-calibre research publications to an expanding universe of users, alternative mechanisms to Plan S would surely be devised. These systems would recognise that no person or community can read everything and that different groups of readers and researchers rightly have different types of needs. Systematic investigation of what different communities of readers’ needs are and how they are best served is one of the most glaring gaps in cOAlition S Funders’ approach to OA. To rectify this anomaly, an optimal approach to OA would likely be hybrid—not simply in the sense of including ‘hybrid’ journals, but in recognising that meeting authors’ and readers’ constrained actual needs—in sharp contrast to fulfilling their imagined infinite needs—may require multiple or tailored delivery systems as well as a diversity of both incentives and mandates for those who produce and disseminate research outputs. This diversity would allow OA systems to accommodate the full range of discipline-based and interdisciplinary research and researchers. It would also foster rather than stifle innovation.

Margot Finn, President of the Royal Historical Society – from the report’s conclusion.