eLife joins the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association

CAMBRIDGE, UK | March 1, 2013

eLife, publisher of the new open-access journal for outstanding advances in life science and biomedicine, adds its weight to the international association and advocate for open-access publishers.

Established in 2008, the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) is the only industry association exclusively committed to the interests of open-access (OA) publishing – which makes published content freely and immediately available online with a license to use and reuse material without restriction. OASPA helps OA publishers by helping to set standards, advance new business models, promote innovation, and representing members in international matters of policy. The organization is an active advocate in open-access policy developments such as those within the UK, Europe, and internationally.

eLife, the initiative backed by three major biomedical research funders – the Wellcome Trust, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Max Planck Society – and publisher of the open-access journal of the same name, today announced it is a full member of OASPA. eLife will contribute to the advancement of the association’s aims for best practices and innovation in open-access publishing.

According to eLife Executive Director Mark Patterson, “eLife is proud to be a member of OASPA. It’s a critical and exciting time for publishers as we build the means and mechanisms to translate the long-established subscription-based system to comprehensive open access. We look forward to working with our partners in this growing coalition to help shape the next era of research communication.”

The eLife journal website was introduced in December 2012 at http://elife.elifesciences.org. For details and more information about the eLife initiative, visit http://www.elifesciences.org.

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Media contact

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About eLife

eLife is a unique collaboration between the funders and practitioners of research to communicate ground-breaking discoveries in the life and biomedical sciences in the most effective way. The eLife journal is a platform for maximising the reach and influence of new discoveries and showcasing new approaches to the presentation, use, and assessment of research. As an open-access journal, eLife delivers access to content for free, online, immediately on publication, and will encourage maximum possible reach and utility of the content by publishing under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which is emerging as the gold standard for open-access publishing. eLife is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust. Learn more at elifesciences.org.