AMSTERDAM.- The Rijksmuseum Bulletin is now being published in a free, open access digital version, as well as a printed version. With this, the peer reviewed scientific journal covering historical and art historical research on the Rijksmuseum collection is now available online to everyone, free of charge. All issues of the journal published since 2012 are now online. The archive will be expanded later this year to encompass the entire back catalogue, right back to the first issue in 1953.

Taking this step aligns the Rijksmuseum with the Plan S initiative, a call from the scientific community to dramatically accelerate the transition to open access that was presented by the European government in 2018 and ratified in 2021. This is also an opportunity for the museum to highlight the importance of free access for all to academic resources.

The Rijksmuseum Bulletin is published digitally on Openjournals.nl, a new open access publication platform operated by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and Open Access Publishing Services (OPuS). The Rijksmuseum Bulletin is the first museum-based academic journal to be published on this platform. No charges are made to the authors for publication on openjournals.nl. The Rijksmuseum Bulletin is now also registered with the authoritative Directory of Open Access Journals. Each article is assigned its own unique DOI, a persistent Internet address which simplifies the process of citing articles from the Bulletin.

All issues of The Rijksmuseum Bulletin from 2012 to the most recent edition in June 2021 have now been published in open access format. The remaining part of the entire back catalogue of the Bulletin, which was first published in 1953, will appear on the platform later this year. The Rijksmuseum Bulletin will remain available on JSTOR, where it has been published in paid digital format since 2008, for the exclusive use of researchers from the academic community. A limited number of printed copies will continue to be produced for purchase at the Rijksmuseum shop, via and Aboland subscription, and through other channels.

The Rijksmuseum Bulletin is a quarterly English-language journal published in-house by the Rijksmuseum.