Open Access
MBE is now fully Open Access
MBE and the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) are thrilled to announce that Molecular Biology and Evolution (MBE) is now fully Open Access.
Find out more about the change, and why we’ve made it below.
Why is MBE Open Access?
Since it started publishing in 1983, MBE has been at the cutting edge of knowledge where evolution and molecular biology meet, publishing some of the highest quality science from across our field. Since its inception our journal has made a huge impact and has continued to serve the needs of our community.
The Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) has long been an advocate for Open Access research, because we believe that open science brings great benefits to our research community and the wider world.
In 2009, SMBE launched a new journal, Genome Biology and Evolution as Open Access. In 2021, MBE moved from a hybrid model to fully Open Access. We are excited for this chance to grow and to develop the journal as we move into this new phase of open publishing.
Licensing
Open access articles will continue to be published under Creative Commons licenses. Authors publishing in MBE can choose the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY) or the Creative Commons Non-Commercial license (CC BY-NC) for their articles.
The CC BY license means that people may use, distribute, adapt and create from your manuscript, even for commercial purposes, as long as the credit is given for the original content. The CC BY NC license is similar as CC BY, but stipulates that the materials must not be used for commercial purposes.
Article Processing Charges (APCs)
The charge for Discoveries, Methods, Resources, and Reviews is $3,255. The charge is discounted to $2,604 if the corresponding author is an SMBE member.
The charge for Brief Communications and Perspectives is $2,279. The charge is discounted to $1,823 if the corresponding author is an SMBE member.
Where do our APCs go?
As a society journal, apart from maintaining our editorial and society staff, most of our APCs go back to the SMBE community to fund our annual and satellite meetings, student and postdoc prizes and travel funds. Please check the awards and meetings pages at this link for more details. SMBE actively supports, and is seeking to foster, a diverse community of scientists.
If I cannot afford the Open Access fee what are my options?
As a society owned journal, MBE will endeavour to publish accepted papers irrespective of the ability of the authors to pay. Waivers will be granted to scientists working in developing countries and applications for a waiver from scientists in other countries will be considered on a case-by-case basis. If you would like to apply for a partial or full waiver, please complete this form, and send it to the OUP Open Access team at openaccess@oup.com, who will forward your application to an independent adjudicator appointed by SMBE.
OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for Open Access publishing. This means corresponding authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.
