Over the past few years, scientific publishing has moved toward increasingly open access. Some funding institutions now insist that the work they support be published in journals that provide free access 6 months after publication. To comply with this mandate, The Journal of Neuroscience has allowed free access to all articles after 6 months since January 2006.
In response to the trend to freer access, The Journal of Neuroscience will now offer an Open Choice option for articles submitted on or after January 1, 2008. By paying a fee, authors can have their articles freely available on the Journal's website as soon as they are published. The fee is currently $1,250 for a Brief Communications article and $2,500 for a regular article. These sums are the minimum required to cover the costs of reviewing, composing, and publishing articles. Details on how to select Open Choice will be provided in acceptance letters to authors.
We hope authors will find Open Choice to be a valuable option. The response to Open Choice will give the Journal information about the extent to which authors and their funding agencies are willing to financially support an entirely open-access journal.