EMBO adopts hybrid model for two journals

The EMBO Journal and EMBO reports to accept author-paid open-access articles, a press release from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), December 14, 2006.  Excerpt:

European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and Nature Publishing Group (NPG) are pleased to announce that from January 2007 The EMBO Journal and EMBO reports will accept open access articles, subject to payment of a publication fee.

The journal is moving to a mixed-revenue model of subscription charges and publication fees. The open access option will be available to all authors submitting original research on or after 1 January 2007. The publication fee will be €2,000 + VAT (where applicable). Articles published with a publication fee will be clearly identified in the online and print editions of the journal with an EMBO Open logo.

Print subscription prices will not be affected. Site license prices will be adjusted in line with the amount of subscription-content published annually.

Editors will be blind to the author's choice, avoiding any possibility of a conflict of interest during through peer review and acceptance. Authors paying the publication fee will be entitled to self-archive the published version immediately on publication, in the repositories of their choice, and in any format.

Content that an author has decided to make freely available online will be licensed under the Creative Commons Deed 2.5. The author will thereby permit dissemination and reuse of the article, and so will enable the sharing and reuse of scientific material. It does not however permit commercial exploitation or the creation of derivative works without specific permission.

Other articles will continue to be published under NPG's exclusive License-to-Publish, where NPG's usual self-archiving policy will apply.

Original research published in Molecular Systems Biology, the open access journal published by EMBO and NPG will also be offered under the Creative Commons Deed 2.5 as of January 2007.

The EMBO Journal and EMBO reports are published by NPG on behalf of EMBO. NPG publishes the open access title Molecular Systems Biology in partnership with EMBO....

Comments.

1. I commend EMBO and NPG for taking this step.  EMBO Open is better than most hybrid programs under my nine criteria.  It lets participating authors retain key rights, use CC licenses, and deposit the published edition of their article in an OA repository independent of the publisher.  It promises to reduce the site license fee, though not the subscription price, in proportion to author uptake.  On the other side, it doesn't (apparently) waive the fee in cases of economic hardship and it says nothing about authors with a prior obligation to their funding agency to provide OA to their peer-reviewed manuscript.  Will they have to pay their publisher in order to comply with their funding contract? 
2. The fee is higher than some, lower than others, and (my guess) too high to generate much author uptake. 
3. The EMBO Open policy will apply to the OA articles from the two journals, and the NPG self-archiving policy will apply to the non-OA articles.  Hence, participating authors may self-archive immediately, and may self-archive the published edition, but non-participating authors must wait six months and may not self-archive the published edition.  Despite the regrettable limitations, this is not a retreat from the previous policy for non-participating authors.
4. This is not NPG's first involvement with hybrid OA journals.  It publishes the British Journal of Pharmacology on behalf of the British Pharmacological Society, and BJP switched to a hybrid model in March 2006.
5. Don't overlook the unrelated announcement at the end of the press release.  Molecular Systems Biology, the full OA (not hybrid OA) journal from NPG and EMBO, now lets authors use CC licenses, a very welcome step.