Centralised Open Access Payments
eLife has introduced a system that aims to simplify the payment process for authors who submit their preprints to its new model for publishing.
The system will mean that authors can focus on the submission of their work to eLife without having to worry about handling fee invoices as part of the process.
When eligible authors send their work to eLife, they can simply declare their affiliation during the submission process; their institution or funder will handle the invoice on their behalf through a centralised account if the paper is sent for review.
Outline terms for centralised payment of publication fees
The main operational terms included in an agreement for centralised payment of publication fees are as follows.
The funder sets criteria to determine which papers qualify to participate in the scheme.
This might involve requiring a set level of involvement in the paper by researchers who themselves meet set eligibility requirements.
The funder pays eLife quarterly in advance for the estimated number of papers sent to review in the following quarter.
The estimate for the quarter is agreed between the funder and eLife.
At the end of the quarter eLife delivers a detailed list of papers sent to review that it has included in the scheme. The funder has the opportunity to reject papers sent to review that it considers ineligible.
A balancing charge or refund is made between the parties, so that the actual cost to the funder is based on the actual number of eligible papers sent to review in the quarter.
The publication fee per paper paid by the funder will be the same as that paid by researchers outside this scheme.
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