Open access and Crystallography Journals Online

There is an increasing trend in scientific journal publishing towards open access, a system of distribution of information where no charge is made to the reader. Making research results freely available has a number of advantages including higher visibility of publications, higher citation rates of open-access publications and access to literature for scientists in the developing world.

The IUCr Executive Committee has therefore decided that from 2004, authors publishing papers in IUCr journals should be given the opportunity to make their papers open access on Crystallography Journals Online. Details are provided at the proof stage. Although a charge is levied for making an article open access, authors unwilling or unable to choose this option are in no way excluded from publishing in IUCr journals as these will contain a mix of both standard and open-access papers.

The charge for making an article open access is USD800. This charge is based on the average cost for the IUCr to produce the first copy of the article, incuding printing and distribution costs, and includes a contribution to the cost of the long-term preservation and access of the publication. Funds generated from open-access payments will be used to keep subscriptions as low as possible.

For more information, please visit http://journals.iucr.org/services/openaccess.html.