Open Access costs

• Institutional agreements

• Article Processing Charges (APCs)

• APC discounts

• Open Access inclusivity policies

• Additional information

The Microbiology Society offers multiple options for Open Access (OA) publishing to support authors and institutions in an increasingly OA publishing landscape. Please see our Routes to Open Access page for more information.

Institutional agreements

If you are a corresponding author affiliated with an organisation with an institutional agreement with us, you will be eligible for fee-free OA publishing in the titles covered.

Publish and Read is our Transformative Agreement model across our full portfolio: researchers affiliated with a Publish and Read institution can read all content and enjoy uncapped, APC-free OA publishing across all Microbiology Society titles.

If you are affiliated with an institution that subscribes to one of our Subscribe to Open (S2O) titles (Journal of General Virology and the Journal of Medical Microbiology), you can publish OA APC-free in the title(s) subscribed to, regardless of whether the journal is open or closed for that year.

Check if your institution has an agreement with us on our institutional agreements page.

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Article processing charges (APCs)

Authors who wish to publish Gold OA, but are not covered by a Publish and Read licence may do so by paying an APC at the following rates.

^† The APC on Access Microbiology is only applied to the Version of Record, if the article is accepted. Pedagogy articles are published for free.

Tier 1 prices cover all original research articles and reviews published across the portfolio. Tier 2 prices cover Commentary and Letter article types as well as Case Reports in Access Microbiology.

For more information on the range of articles published in Microbiology Society journals please see our article types guidance.

APC discounts

Corresponding authors who are Microbiology Society members are entitled to a 30% discount on the APC. In order to redeem the discount, members should provide their membership number during the APC checkout process.

Corresponding authors submitting to Journal of General Virology who are members of American Society for Virology, Australasian Virology Society, Canadian Society for Virology and Gesellschaft für Virologie can benefit from a 20% discount on the APC. Members should contact their respective Society for the associated discount code to use during checkout.

Please note that only one discount may be applied per submission.

Open Access inclusivity policies

The Microbiology Society understands that not all authors receive financial support to publish their work Open Access (OA). As part of our ongoing efforts to make OA publishing more equitable, we have established partnerships with Research4Life and with Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL). Authors who do not have access to sufficient funding to publish in our OA titles may request a partial waiver which must be sought upon submitting a manuscript and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Requests received at later stages cannot be considered.

To facilitate a smooth and simple publishing experience, eligible corresponding authors will still be required to complete their transaction within Copyright Clearance Center where the waiver will be automatically applied.

Research4Life HINARI programme

• Corresponding authors in Group A countries and territories as defined by the HINARI programme are automatically entitled to a 100% waiver to publish in our OA titles.
• Corresponding authors in Group B countries and territories as defined by the HINARI programme are automatically entitled to a 50% waiver to publish in our OA titles.

Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL)

Corresponding authors across 33 developing and transition economy countries and territories who wish to publish OA are automatically entitled to a 100% waiver via our agreement with EIFL which covers unlimited fee-free OA publishing across our portfolio.

APC support

Authors may request a partial waiver when they do not have access to sufficient funding to publish in our OA titles. Requests must be made at submission stage through Editorial Manager and authors will be notified of the outcome of their waiver request before the manuscript move to the editorial assessment stage.

Please note that securing APC support is no guarantee of acceptance. Your manuscripts will be assessed by an independent Editor who is unaware of the funding status and whose decision is based purely on the scientific merits of your work.

Additional information

The UK requires that VAT rates be applied based on the location of the customer for electronic services. Charges are applied during the APC checkout process, and are as follows:

• 20% on all transactions with UK individuals or institutions and on transactions with EU individuals without a VAT registration number;
• 0% on transactions with EU institutions with a VAT registration number and on transactions with individuals or institutions outside of the UK or EU.

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