Agreement between CERN and Elsevier
Elsevier and CERN have established an agreement to support authors who wish to publish open access. The cost of publishing open access in hybrid journals in the Physics & Astronomy and Engineering collections is covered under the terms of this agreement. Eligible corresponding authors do not have to pay an article publishing charge (APC).
How does the process work?
The process of publishing under the agreement is straightforward:
Step 1 – Once the journal accepts your article, you will receive an email containing a link to the “post acceptance author journey”.
Step 2 – You will be asked to review your affiliation and funder details. Based on this information, you will see personalised publishing options including the option to publish under the agreement.
Step 3 – You will confirm your publishing choices and complete the post acceptance journey.
Step 4 – Your institution will validate your eligibility for the agreement
Step 5 – You and your co-authors will receive an email to confirm that the APC will be covered by the agreement.
During the submission process, the system will present you with personalized publishing options, including any agreement or offer that you may be eligible for. You can indicate your publishing choice during submission, but you are not required to finalize your choice until after acceptance.
Which institutions are covered by this agreement?
This agreement supports corresponding authors (see FAQ at the bottom of this page) affiliated with CERN opens in new tab/window.
For collaboration papers with non-CERN-affiliated corresponding authors, please contact CERN opens in new tab/window in advance.
Which journals are included in this agreement?
Authors can publish eligible articles (see FAQ at the bottom of this page) in participating Physics & Astronomy and Engineering hybrid journals.
As part of the SCOAP3 initiative, for fully open access journals Physics Letters B and Nuclear Physics B, SCOAP3 will pay Elsevier directly from central funds on behalf of its eligible authors. On publication, the final published article will be made freely available on ScienceDirect under a CC BY license.
Authors can also publish gold open access in the majority of Elsevier’s fully gold and hybrid journals, excluding The Lancet and Cell Press. Authors choosing this option might be eligible for central funding from CERN or otherwise will need to pay an APC to cover the cost of publication. Authors are advised to contact [email protected] opens in new tab/window in advance to discuss their options.
What are the author benefits of publishing open access with Elsevier?
When you publish open access with Elsevier, you get the attention you deserve. We offer authors:
Choice – we have open access journals across every scientific discipline
Support – receive expert support throughout submission, during peer review and post-acceptance
Visibility – your final published article will be published on ScienceDirect, the number one research platform in the world
To learn more about the benefits of publishing open access with Elsevier, please visit our open access author hub.
Are there other publishing options?
Authors can continue to choose to publish under the subscription model which includes the option to self-archive their manuscript (Green Open Access) in line with Elsevier’s sharing policy.
Please note that for compliance with its policy, CERN requires authors to choose the gold open access route.
Eligibility FAQs
Articles must have an original acceptance date between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2027.
For the purpose of eligibility under the agreement, there can only be one corresponding author. The corresponding author is the author who submits the manuscript and other documentation to the journal and is the primary contact between the journal and the co-authors. Importantly, the corresponding author’s affiliation will be used to determine eligibility for the publishing agreement. The affiliations of other co-authors are not relevant for agreement eligibility.
The corresponding author’s responsibilities include:
Ensuring that all authors have complied with the journal’s policies, including reviewing and approving the final version of the manuscript prior to submission.
Distributing and responding to communications from the journal (e.g., decision letters, reviewers’ reports).
Completing the post publication author journey including signing the Journal Publishing License Agreement, Rights and Access information form, and selection of open access options on behalf of, and with the agreement of, all co-authors of the paper.
Journals may follow requests of the team of authors and display other corresponding authors in the published article. Which corresponding authors are displayed on the published paper, however, is not relevant for agreement eligibility.
With this agreement, authors have a choice between a commercial (CC BY) or non-commercial (CC BY-NC-ND) license. CERN invites authors to select CC-BY. The license choice is dependent on the journal selected. Please refer to the journal's homepage for specific details.
The following article types are part of this agreement:
Case reports
Data in Briefs
Full-length articles
Micro-articles
Original software publication
Practice guidelines
Protocols
Review articles
Replication studies
Short communications
Short surveys
Video articles