FAQs

Opt2Pay enables authors to pre-pay to make the final authoritative version of their journal articles freely available immediately upon publication, on payment of a licence fee.

Portland Press has undertaken this experiment with authors pre-paying for access for a number of reasons.

First, we wish to discover whether author pre-payment for access (sometimes called open access) is financially sustainable for authors and institutions in the long term. Secondly, we wish to collect hard evidence on which to base our future decisions on whether such pre-payments are a viable alternative business model to the reader-pays (subscription) model that has traditionally supported the peer-review system, which underpins scholarly publishing. Thirdly, we wish to discover whether freely available articles achieve greater citations and impact and, last, but not least, we wish to experiment in a responsible manner, so that that the journals we publish do not sustain any irreversible damage to their quality or financial viability.

Portland Press is the wholly owned publishing subsidiary of the Biochemical Society. Its annual surplus, 'the science dividend', is given in its entirety by gift-aid to the Biochemical Society to enable it to undertake its charitable activities. The significant contribution which the Biochemical Society makes to the international research community (through the provision of conferences, awards, grants and bursaries, and its policy and educational activities) is supported at present almost entirely by publishing revenues. It is therefore extremely important that any transition towards full pre-payment by authors and their funding bodies for access is managed in a responsible, sustainable manner.

You will be asked to indicate whether you would like to opt to pay for providing access to your article online when your paper is accepted for publication.

You will be asked to sign an appropriate licence as part of the submission process, which will explain that the Version of Record (VoR)^∗ of your article will only be made freely available once payment has been processed, with a default to the exclusive licence to publish if payment is not forthcoming.

Upon acceptance, you will be prompted to complete an additional Opt2Pay charge form.

The processing of your article will not be delayed in any way or at any stage owing to a failure to pay; however, the Version of Record (VoR) will not be made freely available until payment has been processed, but it will be available via the reader-pays option under the exclusive licence to publish.

The Immediate Publication (IMP) of your article (= Accepted Manuscript, AM)^∗ will appear on the journal website, typically on the day that it is accepted, regardless of which publishing model you choose.

All manuscripts submitted to journals published by Portland Press Limited will receive the same fair, thorough and fast peer-review process. The Journal's Editors will not know whether an author has opted to pre-pay for access. You will only be asked to indicate whether you wish to opt to pay when your manuscript is accepted for publication.

For corresponding authors from organizations that hold a current online or combined subscription at the time that their manuscripts have been accepted for publication the fee for this option will be £1500; US$3000; €2200.

For an author based at an organization that does not have a current subscription the fee will be: £1750; US$3500; €2590.

No, this is currently being heavily subsidized by the traditional reader-pays (subscription) model. As more authors opt to pre-pay for their articles, the pre-payment fee is likely to increase to enable us to recover our costs, make a surplus for future investment, and to allow the Biochemical Society to continue to provide support for the research community. There will be a concomitant decrease in the subscription as the amount of freely accessible content increases significantly.

No.

No.

The above optional pre-payment charges are in addition to any colour charges that might apply.

Yes, you will qualify for the discount provided your institution has an online or combined subscription at the time that your manuscript is accepted for publication.

You can use the following links to confirm if your institution subscribes to a particular title (you must be at the subscribing institution to use these links):

Biochemical Journal – http://www.portlandpress.com/ppl/subs_sirius.asp?jnl=BJ

Biochemical Society Transactions – http://www.portlandpress.com/ppl/subs_sirius.asp?jnl=BST

Clinical Science – http://www.portlandpress.com/ppl/subs_sirius.asp?jnl=CLI

Bioscience Reports – http://www.portlandpress.com/ppl/subs_sirius.asp?jnl=BSR

Biology of the Cell – http://www.portlandpress.com/ppl/subs_sirius.asp?jnl=BOC

Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry – http://www.portlandpress.com/ppl/subs_sirius.asp?jnl=BAB

No, only a current online only or combined subscription will entitle you to the discount.

Yes, if the corresponding author has been an ordinary member of the Society for at least 2 years.

If you cannot afford to pre-pay for access, your article will be available via the reader-pays (subscription) model.

Portland Press Limited constantly endeavours to keep handling times to the minimum. The processing of your article will not be delayed in any way at any stage owing to a failure to pay; however, the Version of Record (VoR) of your accepted article will not be made freely available until payment has been processed, but it will be available via the reader-pays (subscription) option.

Such articles will be clearly identifiable via the Opt2Pay icon in the Table of Contents and on the article itself.

Articles of authors who opt to pre-pay for access be made available under the Creative Commons Attribution Non- Commercial Licence provided the work is cited appropriately.

The Opt2Pay scheme entitles you and your co-authors to post the PDF version of your Version of Record (VoR), for non-commercial purposes, on your own or institutional website, or to free public servers in the relevant subject area, in whole or in part according to the terms of the licence. This is provided you include a link to the published version of the article on theappropriate Journal website and that the Journal and Portland Press are given the correct attributions.

Portland Press Limited will undertake to post all pre-paid articles to PubMed Central, as a service to its authors on receipt of payment, and permit their inclusion in PubMed Central mirror sites.

Portland Press Limited does not require authors who opt not to pay to transfer their copyright, but it does require the grant of an exclusive licence to publish. The copyright in the article will remain with the author(s), and Portland Press Limited will acknowledge this in the copyright line which appears on the article.

All authors are free to use their Accepted Manuscript (AM) for self-archiving on their own website or in their institutional repository, after 6 months, provided it is made clear that this is not the Version of Record (VoR), and that a link is provided to the Version of Record (VoR) on the Journal website and that the Journal and Portland Press are given the correct attributions.

Portland Press Limited Journals are compliant with the NIH mandate: authors may deposit their Accepted Manuscript (AM) in PubMed Central immediately on acceptance with an embargo for public release of 12 months from the date of print publication.

Portland Press supports HINARI run by the World Health Organization. This means that low-income countries can already obtain free (or very low-cost) access to its journals.

There are two tiers of access through HINARI, based on a country's GNI per capita. Institutions in countries with GNI per capita below $1250 are eligible for free access. Institutions in countries with GNI per capita between $1250 and $3500 pay a fee of $1000 per year/institution (Band 2).

Access and further information is available at www.who.int/hinari or email hinari@who.int

Online-only prices of journals published by Portland Press Limited will be adjusted in the future to reflect any significant increase in the number of articles where access has been pre-paid by the authors and/or their funding bodies.

^∗For definitions of journal article versions, see the Recommended Practice of the National Information Standards Organization in Partnership with the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers.

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