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Open Access

Details
Published on 22 May 2012

Open Access in EPJ Open journals

The European Physical Journal wishes to foster the development of the Open Access publishing model in the physical sciences. To this aim a suite of electronic journals freely available to the global scientific community has been launched by the EPJ publishers.

Articles published in these journals will be freely and permanently accessible online. Authors retain the copyright to their work, licensing it under the Creative Commons Attribution License, and are free to reproduce and re-distribute it without restrictions, as long as the original work is correctly cited.

EPJ Applied Metamaterials

EPJ Data Science

EPJ Nonlinear Biomedical Physics

EPJ Photovoltaics

EPJ Quantum Technology

EPJ Techniques and Instrumentation

EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies

EPJ Web of Conferences

Moreover as of 2014 EPJ C – Particles and Fields is published as a full open access journal funded by SCOAP3.

Special Open Access initiatives

“Letter” articles in EPJ A - Hadron and Nuclei are published open access without incurring any fee. Letters must describe new and original work deserving rapid publication. Their aim is fast and concise communication of material of current interest: i) an important theoretical, computational or experimental result ii) a valuable discussion of, or a short essay on, an open scientific issue iii) a valuable presentation of innovative and promising ideas and concepts, in the fields covered by the journal. In order to make a fast refereeing and decision procedure possible, and to address a broad readership, Letters should not exceed 4 printed pages in the EPJ style format, and should contain no more than 4 figures and/or tables.

Wellcome Trust funded research

Authors whose research has been funded by the Wellcome Trust can opt to publish with Open Access. In this case the Open Access fee will be covered by the Wellcome Trust. For more information visit

http://www.springer.com/open+access?SGWID=0-169302-12-641999-0.

NIH-funded research

If your research has been funded by the NIH and you want the publisher to deposit the author’s accepted version in PubMed Central on your behalf and have it opened up for the public within 12 months, please go to http://springer.com/nihauthors and fill in the respective form.

If you opt to publish your article with Open Access, depositing it in the public repository is not necessary. For more information visit http://www.springer.com/gp/open-access/authors-rights.

Open Access in traditional subscription-based EPJ journals

Since November 2006, all EPJ journals have offered an "Open Access" option for papers that have successfully passed the peer-review stage, through the payment of an open access fee prior to publication. Authors who elect to use this option are provided with the same extensive publishing services as those for papers published in the subscription mode, but with the following additional services:

a. The online version of an open access article will be perpetually, universally and freely accessible.
b. The initial copyright holder (by default, the author) is entitled to keep his/her copyright.

Authors wishing to publish an accepted paper as "Open Access" should inform the editorial office of the corresponding EPJ journal, following receipt of the acceptance letter. They will then be contacted regarding the corresponding payments, where applicable. The current standard open access fee is € 1,800 per article. No taxes are included in this charge. Authors resident in any European Union country have to add Value-Added Tax (VAT, currently 20%). Institutions paying the fee on behalf of the author can in most cases have the VAT refunded, or by providing their VAT registration number avoid paying VAT altogether. The article will be tagged "Open Access" and will be published and disseminated as such once the payment has been received.

Corresponding authors who are members of the Physical Societies represented in the EPJ Scientific Advisory Committee receive a 10% discount on the open access fee.

For "open access" papers, authors should use the following license agreement (based on the Creative Commons license) instead of the usual EPJ copyright transfer statement and send it to the responsible production editor.

Sponsored Open Access in traditional subscription-based EPJ journals

Corresponding authors who are affiliated with an institution that is part of one of the following agreements will get their article published Open Access upon verification done by default during the production process and the article processing charge (APC) is covered by the agreement partner. The corresponding author is the person who submits the manuscript and handles the correspondence with the publisher during the publication process.

For Open Access authors will be requested to sign the following license agreement (based on the Creative Commons license) instead of the usual EPJ copyright transfer statement and send it to the responsible production editor.

Austrian agreement

The Open Access agreement with Members of the Austrian Academic Library Consortium and the Austrian Science Fund covers the open access charge for affiliated corresponding authors in subscription-based EPJ journals offering the hybrid open access option.

Click here if you have any questions about the verification process, if you would like to check your eligibility or to find the list of all Austrian institutes covered by the Open Access agreement.

Click here for a list of all journals covered by the Open Access agreement with Austrian institutes.

Article types covered by the Open Access agreement are Original Papers, Review Papers and Brief Communications.

Dutch agreement

The Open Access agreement with Dutch universities and Academy institutes covers the open access charge for affiliated corresponding authors in subscription-based EPJ journals offering the hybrid open access option.

Click here for a list of all Dutch universities and Academy institutes covered by the Open Access agreement.

Click here for a list of all journals covered by the Open Access agreement with Dutch universities and Academy institutes.

Article types covered by the Open Access agreement are Original Papers, Review Papers and Brief Communications.

Contact: If you have any question e.g. on the verification process or to find out if your faculty is also covered, please get in touch with your university or institute library or refer to www.openaccess.nl.

Finnish agreement

The Open Access agreement with the FinELib Consortium covers the open access charge for affiliated corresponding authors in subscription-based EPJ journals offering the hybrid open access option.

Click here for the list of all Finnish institutes covered by the Open Access agreement.

Click here for a list of all journals covered by the Open Access agreement with Finnish institutes.

Article types covered by the Open Access agreement are Original Papers, Review Papers and Brief Communications.

Hungarian agreement

The Open Access agreement with Hungarian institutions covers the open access charge for affiliated corresponding authors in subscription-based EPJ journals offering the hybrid open access option.

Click here for a list of all Hungarian institutions covered by the Open Access agreement.

Click here for a list of all journals covered by the Open Access agreement with Hungarian institutions.

Article types covered by the Open Access agreement are Original Papers, Review Papers and Brief Communications.

Max Planck agreement

The Open Access agreement with Max Planck Society centrally covers the open access charge for affiliated corresponding authors in subscription-based EPJ journals offering the hybrid open access option.

Click here for a list of all Max Planck institutes covered by the Open Access agreement.

Click here for a list of Open Choice eligible subscription-based journals covered by the Open Access agreement with the Max Planck Society. Please note that only Open Choice journals with CC BY license are covered.

Article types covered by the Open Access agreement are Original Papers and Review Papers.

Polish agreement

The Open Access agreement with Polish institutions covers the open access charge for affiliated corresponding authors in subscription-based EPJ journals offering the hybrid open access option.

Click here for a list of all Polish institutions covered by the Open Access agreement.

Click here for a list of all journals covered by the Open Access agreement with Polish institutions.

Article types covered by the Open Access agreement are Original Papers, Review Papers and Brief Communications.

Qatar agreement

The Open Access agreement with Qatari institutions covers the open access charge for affiliated corresponding authors in subscription-based EPJ journals offering the hybrid open access option.

Click here for a list of all Qatari institutions covered by the Open Access agreement.

Click here for a list of all journals covered by the Open Access agreement with Qatari institutions.

Article types covered by the Open Access agreement are Original Papers, Review Papers and Brief Communications.

Swedish agreement

The Open Access agreement with the BIBSAM Consortium covers the open access charge for affiliated corresponding authors from participating institutions in subscription-based EPJ journals offering the hybrid open access option.

Click here for a list of all SE institutions participating in the open access agreement.

Click here for a list of Open Choice eligible subscription-based journals covered by the SE open access agreement.

Article types covered by the Open Access agreement are Original Papers and Review Papers.

UK agreement

The Open Access agreement with UK covers the open access charge for affiliated corresponding authors in subscription-based EPJ journals offering the hybrid open access option.

Click here for a list of all UK institutions participating in the open access.

Click here for a list of all journals covered by the UK open access agreement. Please note that only Open Choice journals with CC BY license are covered.

Article types covered by the Open Access agreement are Original Papers, Review Papers and Brief Communications.

Global availability of EPJ

Presently, all sections of this journal are read in over 7,000 institutions worldwide through subscriptions. The journal is further freely available in many so-called developing countries through various initiatives in which the publishers of EPJ participate.

The EPJ publishers are prepared to move the EPJ journals to "Open Access-only", which will entail seeking sponsoring models and the cooperation with funding agencies and consortia that will guarantee long-term financial support for Open Access publishing at realistic article processing fees, while maintaining the efficiency and flexibility of the present system of dissemination of scientific content and metadata in its usual high quality and to the entire spectrum of hosting, abstracting, indexing and archiving services in keeping with international norms and conventions. In particular, EPJ is seeking sponsoring models and joint projects with funding agencies and consortia willing to sponsor all types and categories of papers accepted by the editors of the EPJ journals on the basis of their intrinsic scientific quality and relevance.

UK Government and Research Councils UK Open Access Policy

Being co-published by Springer, the EPJ journals offer a variety of open access options for authors to publish their research. Authors can choose to have their paper published open access within an established subscription-based EPJ journal. In addition, we offer a new suite of EPJ Open journals, fully open access journals and focused on new emerging areas of physics and related interdisciplinary subjects. All EPJ Open articles as well as articles published in our subscription-based journals using the Open Access option, are truly open access and Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licensed.

Springer also enables authors to self-archive the accepted manuscript version of their article in any repository 12 months after official publication if they decide to publish in a subscription-based journal. See the Springer self-archiving policy for further details.

The EPJ Open journals are part of SpringerOpen and as such they offer an Open Access Membership Program, which allows institutions, societies and funders worldwide to actively support open access. Concretely, we help them to establish affordable membership accounts to cover some or all of the publication costs for their individual researchers. To find out whether your institution is one of our over 400 members, please visit the SpringerOpen website.

To learn more about the RCUK policy and what it means for you as a researchers, please read the RCUK Policy on Open Access and Supporting Guidance. For more information on the implementation for this new funding scheme within SpringerOpen, please visit the dedicated Springer webpage or contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Telethon Compliance

If you are funded by Telethon, EPJ will assist you in complying with your funder’s policy in support of open and unrestricted access to research literature. The EPJ journals are hybrid journals. You can choose to have your article published open access. You will be given that option as soon as your article has been accepted for publication after peer review, and we will handle the administrative process.

The cost of having your article published with open access is covered by Telethon. Please see the Telethon Open Access Policy for details.

If you opt for publishing your article with open access, it will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) and will be immediately freely available to everyone everywhere. Furthermore, you can keep the copyright and do not have to worry about depositing your article into PubMed Central. Springer will deposit the final published version of your article into PubMed Central and make it freely available at the time of publication.

Open calls for papers

Special issues

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