Cell Press to publish open-access papers from January 2021

Academics will be able to publish open-access papers in Elsevier’s portfolio of Cell Press journals from January, the publisher has announced.

Elsevier said that for those titles that do not currently offer an open-access publishing option, the article publishing charges (APCs) will be £7,000 for the majority of journals and £7,800 for the flagship title, Cell. These fees will be paid by authors choosing to make their research article available for everyone to read immediately following publication.

The journals will also continue to offer authors the option to publish through the subscription model. Under this scheme, articles published in Cell Press journals are only free for everyone to read from 12 months after publication.

The APCs will remain unchanged for most of the existing gold open-access journals, including Cell Reports, iScience and Heliyon, where prices start at £1,400.  

Elsevier said the move means that from January nearly all of its 2,600 journals will enable open-access publishing, including 500 fully open-access journals.

Last month, Springer Nature said that researchers would be able to make any papers accepted by Nature and Nature-branded titles freely available by paying an APC of €9,500 (£8,600). It also unveiled a “guided open access” pilot that seeks to spread the cost of publication across a greater number of authors than those accepted for publication.

Philippe Terheggen, managing director of journals at Elsevier, said: “Our commitment to openness, inclusion and collaboration in research means Elsevier will support every author in publishing open access in any one of our journals, across all disciplines of research, including in our highly selective journals.

“We are pleased to expand open access publishing options for Cell Press journals for authors while maintaining the highest standards of quality and editorial rigour that our journals represent.”

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com