Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
For Open Option:
What is Open Access?
Open Access means that articles are made freely available online for anyone to read and download. There are no costs to readers and no need for subscriptions to access content. Publication costs are covered by an article publication charge (APC) which is paid by the author, their institution, or a research funder.
What is Open Option?
Open Option is an open access service that gives authors the opportunity to publish open access in any one of our traditional subscription journals. Open Option can only be ordered if the article has been accepted by a journal after peer review. Open Option carries an article publication charge (APC) which must be paid by the author or their research funder and/or institution. The APC for Open Option doesn’t replace existing author fees for services like color printing or submission fees.
What are the benefits of Open Option?
There are many benefits to ordering Open Option and publishing your article open access.
The benefits of Open Option include:
- High visibility; open access articles are freely available online upon publication
- You retain copyright and receive an open access license allowing for broad dissemination of your research
- You can freely share your article in repositories and research networks without embargo periods
- Easy compliance with open access mandates
- Rigorous editorial and peer review
- Targeted email announcement featuring a direct link to your article
When and how can I order Open Option?
You can decide to order Open Option at any time before your article is published online. The ideal time to order Open Option is at acceptance of your article by a journal for publication. Please contact openaccess@liebertpub.com to order Open Option. You will be asked to fill out a short open access order form and provide payment details to pay for the article publication charge (APC). You can pay by credit card or receive an invoice to be returned with payment or via bank transfer. Please remember that the Open Option APC does not cover or replace existing journal publication fees or submission and page charges.
Does this mean that any article can be accepted as long as an APC is paid?
No, our journals uphold rigorous peer review and are held to the highest scientific publishing standards. All manuscript submissions undergo either a single or double blind peer review and may be rejected by a journal. The APC is only levied when you order Open Option and your article has been accepted for publication in a journal.
Who pays the article publication charge (APC)?
APCs are traditionally paid by authors or their institutions. Additionally, many research grants have open access policies in which grantees/authors may use a portion of their grant to pay for open access. Access to funding might be available via your Institutional department or library. If you want to publish open access but your grant does not include open access funds, please get in touch with your funding body. For a list of funders and institutions which have open access policies or mandates, see: http://roarmap.eprints.org or http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/juliet/
What is the APC amount for Open Option?
The APC for Open Option is standard across all subscription journals; however, it can vary depending on partnerships and author location. Please contact openaccess@liebertpub.com to get more information on the Open Option APC and accepted currency.
What are the copyright stipulations?
If you choose to publish open access, you will retain copyright of your article and a Creative Commons license will be applied. CC BY permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This means that readers may access, share, and re-use your article or elements of your article; however, they must cite or attribute you as the original source.
Commercial use, and reuse, of a Liebert Open Access article is subject to the license type. The CC BY-NC allows the author(s) to retain copyright and noncommercial reuse-rights; however, readers or end users cannot use the article, or elements of the article, for commercial purposes including systematic marketing or commercial publication. Commercial use of the publisher's PDF, and full text, is subject to license fees if the article or content item is published under the CC BY-NC license. Check the copyright line of any Liebert Open Access article or the journal website. You can read more about Creative Commons licenses. End users or authors seeking permission to use content from a CC BY-NC licensed article should contact Karen Ballen for commercial permissions: kballen@liebertpub.com.
The final published version (Version of Record) and author manuscripts of any article published by Liebert Open Access can be posted on research networks like Research Gate and deposited into instructional repositories without an embargo period.
Is Open Option compliant with mandates from funders and institutions?
Yes, Liebert Open Access complies with the open access polices from major funders and institutions, including US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Wellcome Trust, Research Councils UK, and European Commission. It is important to note that Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is listed as a green publisher in Sherpa/Romeo which means that we comply with funder open access requirements.
What if I have more questions?
If you have more questions please contact us at openaccess@liebertpub.com.
For Publishing in Liebert Open Access Journals:
What is Open Access?
Open Access means that articles are made freely available online for anyone to read and download. There are no costs to readers and no need for subscriptions to access content. Publication costs are covered by an article publication charge (APC) which is paid by the author, their institution, or a research funder.
What are the benefits to publishing your open access journals?
- High visibility; open access articles are freely available online upon publication
- You retain copyright and receive an open access license allowing broad dissemination of your research
- You can freely share your article in repositories and research networks without embargo period
- Easy compliance with open access mandates
- Rapid publication and quality production of your article
- Rigorous editorial and peer-review
- Citation tracking, indexing, and presence in bibliographic databases
- Targeted email announcement featuring a direct link to article
Are your open access journals peer reviewed?
Yes, every Liebert Open Access journal adheres to the highest standards of peer review. Our editors, and editorial board members, are experts and oversee the peer review for their journal. Our journals practice either double-blind peer review or single-blind peer review. Please check a journal’s Instructions for Authors for more information on its peer review policy.
What is Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.'s plagiarism policy?
We take issues of plagiarism, or other breaches of publication best practices, very seriously. Consequently, we seek to protect the reputation of our journals against misconduct. We routinely use CrossCheck™ software to screen submissions for unoriginal material across our journal portfolio. We follow the COPE guidelines regarding cases of suspected research or publication misconduct. In cases of proven misconduct involving previously published articles, or where the scientific integrity of the article is significantly undermined, articles may be retracted.
What is an “article publication charge” (APC)?
Publishing research is not without costs. The APC is designed to cover the costs of maintaining a Journal’s submission system, editorial processes including peer review, production management, typsetting and copyediting, indexing, hosting the articles online, archiving, and marketing. The APC is only levied if the article is accepted by an open access journal after peer review.
Who pays the APC?
APCs are traditionally paid by authors or their institutions. Additionally, many research grants have open access policies in which grantees/authors may use a portion of their grant to pay for open access. Access to funding might be available via your Institutional department or library. If you want to publish open access but your original grant did not include an open access policy for APCs, please get in touch with your funding body. For a list of funders and institutions which have open access policies or mandates, see: http://roarmap.eprints.org or http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/juliet/
How much does it cost to publish open access?
APCs for open access journals vary between each title. Please check the author instructions on each journal homepage to find the APC. As a reminder, APCs only apply to accepted articles. No open access fees are levied on rejected manuscripts.
Can the APC be discounted or waived?
Some Liebert Open Access journals have a limited waiver budget for authors from low income countries or those without funding. Authors will receive more information about applying for a waiver upon submission of their manuscript to an open access journal.
Will there be print issues of Liebert Open Access journals?
Some open access journals may have a print component for promotional purposes only. Liebert Open Access journals are online only and freely available without subscription.
Will there be print copies of the articles?
No, high quality print reprints may be ordered by contacting Karen Ballen: kballen@liebertpub.com.
What is your copyright policy and which licenses do you use?
Liebert Open Access publishes articles with open access licenses and authors retain the copyright to their work. The liberal Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CCBY) license is the default open access license used at Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The CCBY license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.
The final published version (Version of Record) and author manuscripts of any article published by Liebert Open Access can be posted on research networks like Research Gate and deposited into instructional repositories without embargo period.
The final published version (Version of Record) and author manuscripts of any article published by Liebert Open Access can be posted on research networks like Research Gate and deposited into instructional repositories without embargo period.
Are your journals compliant with open access mandates from funders and institutions?
Yes, Liebert Open Access complies with the open access polices from major funders and institutions, including US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Wellcome Trust, Research Councils UK, and European Commission. It is important to note that Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is listed as a green publisher in Sherpa/Romeo which means that we comply with funder open access requirements.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. will deposit all NIH-funded articles published in a Liebert Open Access journal to PubMed Central (PMC) upon online publication and without an embargo period*. Our workflow ensures compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy which mandates that NIH-funded authors submit their research article to PMC, or have their peer-reviewed author accepted manuscript submitted on their behalf, at point of acceptance by a journal.
For more information on funder open access mandates, please visit the ROARMAP website. *Please note that PubMed Central (PMC), not the Publisher, has sole control over when the paper is made live on PMC.
How quickly will articles be published after acceptance?
We recognize that authors want their articles published online immediately after acceptance. However, authors also value high standards in copy editing, proofing, indexing, and publication in multiple formats. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. endeavors to publish articles as quickly as possible along with high quality production services. Typically, articles are published within four to six weeks after acceptance.
Where will my article be indexed?
All Liebert Open Access journals are immediately indexed in ProQuest, Google Scholar, OCLC, and CrossRef. Additionally, Liebert Open Access journals are archived in Portico for long-term preservation.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. works closely with major indexers/bibliographic databases, such as Web of Science, PubMed Central, PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) to have our journals included when they become eligible. It is an industry standard that some bibliographic databases require journals to have published 2-3 years before they become eligible for inclusion. Please see individual journal pages for details on where articles will be indexed.
What if I have more questions?
If you have more questions please contact us at openaccess@liebertpub.com.