My thanks go to the publishers for their decision for Nature Communications to become open access only.
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Press release archive
Nature Communications to become open access only23 September 2014
Contact: Amy Bourke
Corporate Communications Manager
Nature Publishing Group/Palgrave Macmillan
T: 020 7843 4603 | M: +44 (0) 7703717212
amy.bourke[bat]palgrave.com
Nature Communications is to become the first Nature-branded open access only journal. The number one open access journal in multidisciplinary sciences*, Nature Communications is Nature Publishing Group's (NPG) flagship open access title. Nature Communications will only accept open access research submissions from 20th October 2014.
Nature Communications ranks as the number three multidisciplinary journal in the world behind Nature and Science*. The title was launched in 2010 as a born-digital hybrid journal, publishing both open access and subscription content. Nature Communications is now one of NPG's fastest growing titles, receiving over 1000 submissions every month. All research published by the journal represents important advances, of significance to specialists within a field, in all areas of the biological, physical, chemical and earth sciences.
Sam Burridge, Managing Director for Open Research, Nature Publishing Group/Palgrave Macmillan said: "We want to be leaders in open research, and this move accelerates our commitment to drive open access forward. NPG has made significant moves over the past ten years, and 38% of the research articles we published last year were open access. We are now taking a decisive step. We continue to see demand from authors for subscription publishing options, but we also see a need for a high quality, multidisciplinary, open access journal. Most importantly: we believe in open access. Nature Communications is now the Nature-branded flagship journal for high-quality, open access research."
NPG is also making further policy moves with this development. Nature Communications now offers the CC BY 4.0 license as default, with other Creative Commons (CC) licenses available upon request. There is no price difference for the choice of CC license. APC waivers will be available for HINARI countries, and to others on a case-by-case basis.
Robert Kiley, who leads on the implementation of the Wellcome Trust's open access policy, commented: "I am delighted that Nature Communications is to become a fully, open access journal, and one that defaults to publishing content under the CC BY licence.
"The decision by NPG to make this journal fully OA also provides evidence that hybrid OA - in which a journal makes content available under both OA and subscription models - can be a transitional phase."
Nature Publishing Group will honour author's choice of subscription or open access publication, for those authors whose research is currently in review by the journal, and for submissions up to the 19 October 2014. This means that subscription content will continue to be published in 2015, and available to site license customers. Major funders including Wellcome, RCUK, NIH, NSF, HHMI and CAS allow funds to be used for APCs, and NPG will work with authors to help them identify funds for open access publication.
Zhang Xiaolin, Director, National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences said: "I tip my hat to NPG for making Nature Communications full open access and with a CC BY license. The will and efforts to meet the needs of full open access, will definitely give NPG a stronger and more R&D-friendly position in the progress toward open science and open innovation."
NPG is committed to continue to publish all other Nature-branded titles as subscription journals, and will continue to offer hybrid OA options on its other subscription journals. NPG publishes many open access journals, including the Nature Partner Journals and Scientific Reports.
Burridge adds: "We are building a family of open access journals, offering choice to authors. From Scientific Reports, to the Nature Partner Journal series and our hybrid journals with open access options, we can now offer a home for specialist and high impact open access research across the natural sciences. With the launch of Scientific Data and Palgrave Communications, this has also been extended to all types of open research, including open data and the humanities and social sciences."
A report by the Research Information Network recently found that there is a significant benefit for article views and downloads, as well as a small but significant citation benefit to publishing open access in Nature Communications.
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*The 2013 Impact Factor for Nature Communications is 10.742, according to the 2013 Journal Citation Reports® Science Edition (Thomson Reuters, 2014). This places Nature Communications third among all multidisciplinary science primary research journals, with Nature being first.
About Nature Publishing Group (NPG)
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high impact scientific information in print and online. NPG publishes journals, online databases and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences.
Focusing on the needs of scientists, Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading weekly, international scientific journal. NPG publishes a range of Nature research journals and Nature Reviews journals, and a range of prestigious academic and partner journals including society-owned publications. Online, nature.com provides over 8 million visitors per month with access to NPG publications and services, including news and comment from Nature, and the leading scientific jobs board Naturejobs.
Part of the Nature Publishing Group family is Frontiers, a community-driven open-access publisher and research network. NPG and Frontiers work together to empower researchers to change the way science is communicated, through open access publication and open science tools. For more information on Frontiers, please go to
http://www.frontiersin.orgScientific American is at the heart of NPG's consumer media division, meeting the needs of the general public. Founded in 1845, Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in the US and the leading authoritative publication for science in the general media. Together with scientificamerican.com and 14 local language editions around the world it reaches over 5 million consumers and scientists. Other titles include Scientific American Mind and Spektrum der Wissenschaft in Germany.
Throughout all its businesses NPG is dedicated to serving the scientific community and the wider scientifically interested general public. Part of Macmillan Science and Education, NPG is a global company with principal offices in London, New York and Tokyo, and offices in cities worldwide including Boston, San Francisco, Washington DC, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Cairo, Dubai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Melbourne, Osaka, Seoul, Barcelona, Madrid, Basingstoke, Heidelberg, Munich and Paris. For more information, please go to
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