PLOS' five new journals are now OPEN for submissions…
Open for submissions (Part 2 – equitable OA models)
Our five new journals are now Open for Submissions! This post (Part 2) is specifically geared towards librarians and/or those of you who manage budgets that support Open Access publishing. Or, simply those of you who would like more details about how we are supporting our activities.
If you have been keeping up to date with our business model innovations, you already know we have been working hard to move beyond the APC to develop more equitable and regionally appropriate ways to support Open Access. In the past eighteen months we’ve developed Flat Fee agreements and Community Action Publishing. (Please see those links for the full details or recap of those models.)
We’re developing new institutional models to experiment and get things right, and we thank all of you in the library community who have given us feedback. We’re learning that, right now, different types of journals can be better supported by different types of institutional models. Also, we’ve learned that some authors, funders, and countries still prefer APCs due to how they are currently funding or administering their OA publishing. We will continue to support such publication fee models for those who prefer or need them, while continuing to experiment with and develop these new institutional models to make OA work for all authors.
Institutional models for the five new journals
- PLOS Digital Health joins the group of journals covered by Flat Fee agreements (covering PLOS ONE, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Digital Health, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases and PLOS Pathogens)
- PLOS Sustainability and Transformation has its own Community Action Publishing setup, similar to PLOS Biology and PLOS Medicine, to showcase how CAP can work for new journals.
- PLOS Climate, PLOS Water, and PLOS Global Public Health offer a new type of institutional business model, which we are naming the “Global Equity” model.
Global Equity
Our new Global Equity model empowers institutions in every region of the world to provide unlimited Open Access publication support for their authors through a single, annual fee that is affordable and equitably reflects regional economies. The annual fee is based on:
- an institution’s research output in the relevant subject area, helping us understand the likely potential to publish in the journal, and
- the relevant country’s World Bank lending tier (i.e. Low/Low-Middle Income Country (L/LMIC), Upper Middle Income Country (UMIC), High Income Country (HIC).
The Global Equity model’s annual price will therefore allow a large institution in a LMIC to pay less than one of comparable size in an HIC, but more than a small institution in an LMIC.
Authors at institutions in Research4Life (R4L) countries (both group A and group B) can publish for free, regardless of the size of the institution.
The following table shows the annual prices for institutions, per journal. Tier 1 is a high output institution in the subject area, to Tier 6 being a low output institution in the subject area. For example, a low output institution in a LMIC interested in PLOS Climate would pay $350 per year to cover unlimited publishing by its authors in that journal.
| HIC | UMIC | L/LMIC | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | $6,000 | $5,400 | $2,100 |
| Tier 2 | $4,500 | $4,050 | $1,575 |
| Tier 3 | $3,750 | $3,375 | $1,313 |
| Tier 4 | $3,000 | $2,700 | $1,050 |
| Tier 5 | $2,000 | $1,800 | $700 |
| Tier 6 | $1,000 | $900 | $350 |
| R4L | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Summary Information and Comparison Table
Many of you reading this post are likely librarians or other people administering OA budgets. However, if you are an author and are simply interested in submitting to a PLOS journal that is of interest to you, please presume there is a way, that is appropriate for you and your context, that you will be able to publish in these new journals:
- If APCs do not work for you and you would like your institution to join any of these institutional agreements, please send your librarian this link, or refer them via this form.
- If you are a librarian, please contact us via this link.
- If APCs are preferred, or are necessary for you, they are listed in the table below.
- Our waiver policies and fee assistance programs for APCs are unchanged.
Below is a table that summarizes the information for our entire portfolio of twelve journals, with the five new journals indicated.
| Journal | Institutional Model | Action for authors | Publishing fee (if preferred/ necessary) |
|---|---|---|---|
| PLOS Climate NEW | Global Equity | Ask your librarian to explore a Global Equity model with PLOS here | APC: $2100 |
| PLOS Water NEW | Global Equity | Ask your librarian to explore a Global Equity model with PLOS here | APC: $2100 |
| PLOS Global Public Health NEW | Global Equity | Ask your librarian to explore a Global Equity model with PLOS here | APC: $2100 |
| PLOS ONE | Flat Fee agreement (covers all six journals listed here) | Ask your librarian to explore a Flat Fee agreement with PLOS here | APC: $1,749 Regular article $1,339 Registered Report Protocol $775 Registered Report Article $1,100 Lab Protocols & Study Protocols |
| PLOS Computational Biology | (see above) | APC: $2,575 | |
| PLOS Digital Health NEW | (see above) | APC: $2,575 | |
| PLOS Genetics | (see above) | APC: $2,575 | |
| PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases | (see above) | APC: $2,420 | |
| PLOS Pathogens | (see above) | APC: $2,575 | |
| PLOS Sustainability and Transformation NEW | Community Action Publishing | Ask your librarian to explore Community Action Publishing with PLOS here | Non-Member Fee for authors not covered by CAP: $3000 |
| PLOS Biology | Community Action Publishing | Ask your librarian to explore Community Action Publishing with PLOS here | Non-Member Fee for authors not covered by CAP: $4,000 Research Article $3,350 Discovery Report $2,250 Update Articles |
| PLOS Medicine | Community Action Publishing | Ask your librarian to explore Community Action Publishing with PLOS here | Non-Member Fee for authors not covered by CAP: $4,000 |