Open access policy

(Last updated March 2021)

Introduction

Bioscientifica supports open access to research articles through both 'gold' and 'green' routes. We publish both fully open-access publications and traditional subscription journals which offer open-access options ('hybrid' journals).

Editorial decision-making regarding the publication of an article in a Bioscientifica journal is entirely independent of the access model chosen by the author.

Before submitting an article to a Bioscientifica journal, we strongly recommend that authors carefully check any specific open-access publication requirements from their funding bodies.

Plan S compliance

All fully Open Access journals are Plan S compliant.

All hybrid journals are Plan S compliant as they offer ‘green’ open access. This allows authors the option of immediately depositing their accepted article to a public repository (compliant with the Plan S ‘Rights retention’ route).

For authors at institutions subscribing to Bioscientifica’s ‘Read and Publish’ transformative deal, all our hybrid journals are Plan S compliant. More information can be found on our Read and Publish page.

Open Access options

Table 1 summarises the open-access options applying to each of our publications. More detail about each of the options can be found in this section.

Table 1: Bioscientifica's publications and their respective open-access options.

'Green' open access

For 'Green' open access, the authors’ version of an accepted manuscript (before typesetting and copyediting, not the published, final Version of Record) may be uploaded to a subject or institutional repository. Our journals make no charge to authors for 'green' open access via non-commercial repositories.

The following disclaimer must be included when depositing articles:

a) prior to final publication
“Disclaimer: this is not the definitive Version of Record of this article. This manuscript has been accepted for publication in [insert name of journal], but the version presented here has not yet been copy-edited, formatted or proofed. Consequently, Bioscientifica accepts no responsibility for any errors or omissions it may contain.”

b) once the Version of Record is published:
"The definitive version is now freely available at [insert DOI link] [insert year of publication]."

If funders require the Version of Record to be made freely available sooner than 12 months after online publication, authors should opt for 'gold' open access (see below).

'Delayed' open access

Bioscientifica automatically makes all subscription content freely available online 12 months after publication. The version made free is the final published version (Version of Record) following typesetting, copyediting and proofing, and containing reference linking, links to supplementary data and information on any subsequent changes to the scholarly record (including errata and retractions).

'Gold' open access

For 'Gold' open access, the final published version (Version of Record) is made freely available online immediately upon publication.This is the version following typesetting, copy-editing and proofing, and containing reference linking, links to supplementary data and information on any subsequent changes to the scholarly record (including errata and retractions). Authors retain copyright of their articles for 'gold' open access and a range of user licences are available for authors to choose from (Table 2). Bioscientifica automatically deposits final published versions of all 'gold' open access articles into PubMed Central (PMC).

'Gold' open access is traditionally funded by the payment of an Article Publication Charge (APC) upon acceptance by the author (or their funder/institution). Details of the APC charges for each journal may be found in Table 2.

Transformative agreements

From 2021, articles with corresponding authors based at institutions which have purchased Bioscientifica’s transformative ‘Read and Publish’ deal qualify for free 'gold' open-access publication in our hybrid journals. Please see our Read and Publish page for more details.

Author charges for 'gold' open access

The Article Publication Charges (APCs) payable by authors (or their funders or institutions) upon acceptance for 'gold' open access are summarised in Table 2, along with any discounts and the user licences available. Prices are subject to VAT where applicable.

Table 2: Bioscientifica's licence options and pricing for 'gold' open access.

†If author(s) are eligible for discounted publishing fees or have a discount code these cannot be used cumulatively; only one deduction will be applied per manuscript.

Any decision to apply an APC discount or waiver is made by journal staff and is entirely independent of the peer-review process which is managed by the Editorial Board with complete editorial independence.

Refund policy

The author(s) may withdraw their article at any time prior to acceptance without incurring an Article Publishing Charge (APC) or administration fee.

Post-acceptance article withdrawal is not permitted except in very rare circumstances and will be at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief and the publisher, and will be done in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the publication.

'Gold' open access licences

Bioscientifica offers authors a range of licences for 'gold' open access (please check if your funding body has any particular licence requirements). The features of the different licences are summarised below in Table 3. For further information please refer to the Creative Commons website.

Table 3: Terms of the user licences offered by Bioscientifica.

*Authors publishing under these licences grant the society owner(s) and/or the publisher commercial rights.

Converting an article to ‘gold’ open access after publication

Authors may request the conversion of an article, previously published on a subscription basis, to ‘gold’ open access. This is possible with the following conditions

• The request to convert the article to ‘gold’ open access must be sent to the journal mailbox within one year of the original article publication date.
• The authors will be charged the Article Publication Charge (APC) for the journal at the time the request is made. An administrative charge of £200 will also be charged to cover production work and staff time.
• Any subscriber discount price for the APC will only be available if the author’s institution was a subscriber BOTH at the time of original article publication AND when the request is made to convert the article to ‘gold’ open access.

Any charges paid at time of publication (for example colour figure charges) will not be reimbursed or deducted from the APC or administrative charge.

Funder requirements

Bioscientifica actively monitors developments in funder mandates and takes all reasonable steps to comply with these. Before submitting an article to a Bioscientifica journal, we strongly recommend that authors carefully check any specific open-access publication requirements from their funding bodies.

To enable authors to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy, Bioscientifica automatically deposits final accepted versions of non-'gold' open-access NIH-funded research articles in PubMed Central on behalf of authors upon acceptance, for release 12 months after online publication. All 'gold' open-access articles are deposited immediately upon publication.

Contact

If you have any questions regarding Bioscientifica's publications or open-access policy please do get in touch via publishing@bioscientifica.com.

We do not hold information on how different institutions are managing their block grants. If you have any queries about how your institution will be supporting APC payments please ask your librarian.

Please contact your funder or institution if you have any queries about their requirements for 'green' or 'gold' open access, user licences or the deposit of articles in repositories.