Open Access
As a membership charity and independent publisher, the Microbiology Society supports sustainable Open Access models which maintain the scholarly publishing environment that is fundamental to how microbiologists improve, validate and share their research. Open Access policies for our own academic journals reflect these values.
You can also read more about our stance on Open Access by visiting the Microbiology Society website.
Contents
Gold Open Access with OpenMicrobiology
Our gold Open Access option, OpenMicrobiology, allows authors and their funding bodies to make published articles freely available online from the time of publication, upon payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC). Articles published through OpenMicrobiology are deposited automatically in PubMed Central and its mirror sites.
All four of our subscription journals offer OpenMicrobiology as an option:
- Microbiology
- Journal of General Virology
- Journal of Medical Microbiology
- International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology
Our Open Access journals, Microbial Genomics, Access Microbiology, and JMM Case Reports are also covered by OpenMicrobiology.
The OpenMicrobiology APC is the only author charge we levy: there are no page or submission charges for any of our journals.
Creative Commons
If you choose to publish using OpenMicrobiology you will be asked to sign a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC) licence. If your funder requires it, you may choose to sign the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence instead. The Creative Commons licence replaces our standard Licence to Publish form, both available on the Author Forms page.
OpenMicrobiology Article Processing Charges
For Microbiology, Journal of General Virology, Journal of Medical Microbiology, and International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, the OpenMicrobiology APC only applies if you choose to make your article Open Access. Articles in these journals have an APC of £2100.
Microbial Genomics is a newer journal and currently charges only a partial APC of £700. All APCs are currently waived for our new journal, Access Microbiology.
From 01 January 2015, the EU requires that all VAT tax rates be applied based on the location of the customer for electronic services; because of this all APCs collected by the Microbiology Society will include VAT. The Microbiology Society will take on the responsibility of paying the appropriate VAT rate.
Discounts
Corresponding authors who are members of the Microbiology Society receive a 30% discount on their OpenMicrobiology APC across all Society journals.
For Microbiology, Journal of General Virology, Journal of Medical Microbiology, and International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, corresponding authors within an institution that holds an active subscription to the journal receive a 15% discount on the APC.
Corresponding authors from developing countries in the HINARI programme can publish using OpenMicrobiology without paying an APC in Microbial Genomics.
To find out whether your institution currently subscribes to the journal you want to publish in, email [email protected] and provide your name, institution name and address. We will then confirm if you are entitled to the institutional subscriber discount.
Please note that we only one discount may be applied per submission.
Paying the APC
If you want your article to be Open Access, select the OpenMicrobiology option during submission. If the article is accepted, we will send you an email containing a link to the Copyright Clearance Center’s Rightslink platform. You can confirm your OpenMicrobiology order and pay the APC on Rightslink.
Refund policy
APCs will only be reimbursed if an article does not comply with the research funder’s requirements because of our oversight. APCs will not be refunded where article publication is not compliant with funder mandates for reasons outside our control. The Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies maintains a list of policymakers and their mandates.
Green Open Access
As part of our educational remit, we make all subscription articles free-to-read 12 months after publication, sometimes called Bronze Open Access. Authors also have a range of options for depositing articles in a subject or institutional repository, known as Green Open Access.
Pre-prints
A ‘pre-print’ is an early version of the scientific article that has not been through peer review before being posted online. The Microbiology Society encourages authors to deposit a pre-print in an institutional repository provided that:
- There is a clear link to the pre-print in the submission form.
- If the article is accepted, the author is still able to sign the Creative Commons license and pay the APC (for OpenMicrobiology articles) or to sign our Licence to Publish form (for non-OpenMicrobiology articles).
- If the article is accepted, the author will provide a link to the final published article, known as the Version of Record, alongside the original pre-print.
Post-prints
The ‘post-print’ is the accepted version of a scientific article, including modifications based on reviewers’ suggestions but which has not been copyedited or typeset. All authors are entitled to retain post-prints for personal use, and post-prints may also be deposited in an institutional repository or recognised subject repository such as PubMed Central.
All authors are free to deposit a post-print immediately after publication provided that they include an archiving statement on the title page and include a link to the Version of Record, the final version published in the journal, when depositing. We understand that some authors may wish to provide a translated abstract, or a full translation of their work, before depositing a post-print. This is acceptable under our policy, provided an archiving statement and link to the Version of Record is included in the translation.
Reuse
We encourage authors to use a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) or Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC) licence for pre-prints and post-prints. These licences means that authors retain copyright, and that others are able to re-use the article in line with funder and institution mandates on Open Access.