What does a journal moving to open access mean to authors?

Anyone submitting to the journal on or after the changeover date will be expected to cover the cost of the Article Publishing Charge (APC) to publish in the journal. The APC can be found on the journal open access (OA) information page.

The APC is payable after your paper is accepted for publication in the journal. Your work will be published under a Creative Commons licence and freely available for anyone to access and read via ScienceDirect.

Conditions on the reuse of your work will depend on the licence that you choose to publish under.

Please visit the journal homepage on Elsevier.com to identify this changeover date.

What does a journal moving to open access mean to readers?

Everyone will be able to read, download, and share articles that have been published in the journal after it's moved to gold open access. Reuse of articles will depend on the authors choice of Creative Commons licence.

What does a journal moving to open access mean to subscribers?

After a journal has changed to open access, libraries will no longer have to pay to give their researchers access to the content published on or after the changeover date. This is because the cost of publication is covered through the Article Publishing Charge (APC) paid by the author or on their behalf. All content is freely available to all in perpetuity. Past issues will remain as subscription content and subscribers will continue to access these as part of their collections and subscriptions.

Why did a journal become open access?

Elsevier regularly reviews its journals to ensure we are continuing to provide high quality publishing options that meet researcher needs. In some cases, for example where we see strong appetite for or uptake of gold open access in a journal, we might assess the journal’s publication model accordingly.

Where do I find the Article Publishing Charge (APC)?

You can find the APC for all original research papers and review articles on the journal’s open access information page, which can be accessed via the journal homepage on Elsevier.com.

Will the editorial standard change?

Journals changing to open access will continue to maintain the same rigorous editorial standards.

The Editor and Editorial Board will remain unchanged, unless there are specific alterations listed on the journal homepage.

When do I pay the APC?

Payment will be requested on acceptance of your paper. Some universities and funding bodies have agreements in place to cover the cost of the Article Publishing Charge centrally. For more information, please visit the page with an overview of the agreements.

What happens if I submitted my paper before the change-over date, but my paper will be published after the change-over date?

You will not need to pay an Article Publishing Charge for your paper in this scenario, but your paper will be made open access and you will be asked to make a choice of CC license.

What happens to all the content published before moving the journal from hybrid to open access? Will it become open access?

No, the content previously published under the subscription model in the journal will remain accessible to subscribers.

Do you have other journals in this field that aren’t open access?

If you don’t want to publish your article open access, then we have several other journals that might suit your needs.

Please visit Journal Finder to explore the options available to you.

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