Oxford Journals tries out new approach to open access

All primary papers published in the Journal of Experimental Botany after 1 April 2007 are being published as open access with no article-processing charge if the corresponding author’s institution has a current subscription to the journal.

The Journal of Experimental Botany (JXB), from Oxford Journals, a division of Oxford University Press, launched the first phase of its open-access (OA) experiment in April 2004. Since this time approximately 30 per cent of primary research articles have been made freely available online from the time of publication. In the first phase of the experiment, publication costs were partially met in part by OA fees from authors (£250 per paper) and by two grants from the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).

The unique feature of the new phase of JXB’s OA experiment is that institutional subscriptions will now pay not only for content (including reviews and special issues, which are not eligible for open access) but also for OA publication. Corresponding authors from subscribing institutions will have no OA charges to pay, while others who wish to take advantage of OA publication in JXB will have to pay £1500 ($2800/€2250).