eLife, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of research communication and review, has introduced open access publishing agreements to support a more equitable and sustainable scientific publishing ecosystem. Under an ‘uncapped’ agreement model, partner institutions cover a fixed fee for a two-year term, allowing corresponding authors to publish unlimited articles in eLife without incurring individual fees.
The uncapped scheme is intended to simplify institutional workflows, reduce author costs, and promote broader adoption of eLife’s peer-reviewed preprint model. This approach combines preprint dissemination with expert peer review and editorial assessment. Articles selected for peer review are published as Reviewed Preprints, which include reviewer feedback and a summary assessment of the study’s significance and evidence strength.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Libraries became the first institution to sign onto the uncapped agreement, which will remain in effect through April 2027. The arrangement applies to research submitted and reviewed under eLife’s publish–review–curate model, launched in 2023.
In addition to eliminating per-article charges, the scheme allows researchers to bypass the payment process by selecting their institution at the time of submission. This is expected to reduce administrative overhead for authors and participating institutions alike.
eLife has also introduced a centralized payment model to support a broader transition away from traditional author-pays systems. These initiatives are part of eLife’s wider mission to reform research publishing and improve access to scientific knowledge.
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