STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced its participation in SCOAP3 (Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics), a new model for open access publishing. Key SCOAP3 principles are perpetual open access, wide re-use licenses, and reduction and re-direction of subscription fees to centrally cover for article processing charges in journals carrying SCOAP3 content, with no charges to authors.
Under SCOAP3 two well-established Elsevier journals - Physics Letters B and Nuclear Physics B - will change from a subscription based model into an open access model by the start of 2014. Both journals are fully focused on publications from the High Energy Physics field. Articles funded by SCOAP3 will be available open access in perpetuity, under a CC-BY license.
Acting for the benefit of SCOAP3, CERN conducted the tendering. This open and competitive procedure took into account the quality of journals (as measured by Impact Factor), the quality of services provided (as measured by re-use licenses and delivery formats) and the unit price for publishing each article.
