Opening up Open Access:
Weaving the “Author Pays” Safety Net

Introduction As of July 1, 2007, all authors who publish in the APS research journals (Table 1) will have the choice to pay a fee for immediate open access (OA) of their article. At their March Committee meetings, the Publications and Finance Committees supported a proposal to extend the OA choice to all APS research journals. Up until now, only the authors of Physiological Genomics articles have had such a choice.

The new policy will work as follows: Authors will be informed in their acceptance letters that they have the choice to pay a $2,000 supplemental fee to make their article free to all immediately upon online publication, with a link to a payment form. Upon receipt of the fee, the APS staff will make the article free online. This fee is in addition to any page charges, color fees, or reprint costs that the author will be billed for at the end of the production process of the print issue.As always,the APS will continue to make all articles free to all 12 months after issue publication. Learn more>