eLife has announced new publishing agreements with Imperial College London and the University of Sheffield under its uncapped institutional scheme, advancing efforts toward a more open, equitable, and sustainable scientific publishing system. The partnerships follow similar arrangements made with the MIT Libraries earlier this year.
The two universities have adopted eLife’s two-year uncapped scheme, which supports institutional participation without limits on the number of published articles. The agreements, running until mid-2027, aim to eliminate author fees and remove financial barriers to publishing, helping researchers transition away from traditional pay-to-publish models.
eLife introduced its uncapped and centralized schemes to enable institutions to manage publication costs more effectively and to promote transparency in research publishing and assessment.
The model combines the speed and openness of preprints with the scrutiny of peer review, resulting in “Reviewed Preprints” that include the article, public reviews, and an eLife Assessment. This structure shifts the focus from journal-level metrics to the quality of individual research outputs.
Both Imperial College London and the University of Sheffield are early adopters of this approach, reinforcing their commitment to open science and equitable access. Their participation reflects growing support for eLife’s publishing model, which emphasizes fairness, inclusivity, and sustainable assessment practices within the scholarly publishing landscape.
As signatories of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), eLife and its new institutional partners share the view that journal-level metrics should not determine research quality or career advancement. Instead, they advocate assessment methods that recognize scientific merit and transparency.
Through its uncapped agreements, eLife continues to work with universities and funders worldwide to support researchers in adopting open access publishing routes. The organization encourages other institutions to participate in similar initiatives that align with its mission to reform scholarly publishing and make scientific communication more accessible.
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