Elsevier introduces geographical pricing pilot to support authors in low - and middle- income countries with equitable open access publishing options

The GPOA model, a publishing industry first, is set to take effect from January 2024. As part of the pilot, Elsevier will structure its article publishing charges for this subset of journals based on countries’ local economic conditions and average income. By tailoring pricing structures according to Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, a transparent and well-established measure used by many international organisations including Research4Life, Elsevier aims to reduce financial barriers that have traditionally hindered researchers and institutions from low and middle-income countries from publishing the latest research in Gold Open Access journals. Elsevier’s approach to GPOA and country banding based on GNI are outlined on our website. A full list of the journals taking part in this novel pilot can be found here. Elsevier will continue to waive APCs for authors in the lowest economic band and already provides affordable access to over 100,000 peer-reviewed resources for institutions in 120 low- and middle-income countries through Research4Life.

Stuart Whayman, Managing Director, Researchers and Librarians, Elsevier, said: "We acknowledge that economic disparities between regions are one of the barriers to achieving a more inclusive world of research. With Geographical Pricing for Open Access, we aim to test and learn from a more globally equitable model that reflects local economic circumstances to help researchers in low and middle-income countries to publish open access and contribute to scientific advancement for the benefit of society. There is more to be done to achieve inclusive and equitable open access publishing, we hope this is one incremental step that supports this journey.”

Elsevier’s GPOA builds on the company’s longstanding commitment to advancing openness and inclusion in research. GPOA also builds on Elsevier’s commitment to pricing journal article publishing charges below the market average, relative to comparable quality. The introduction of this pilot programme marks a positive step towards achieving a fairer, more transparent, and globally equitable pricing structure for scholarly publishing. Elsevier will evaluate, continually, its impact and share our learnings with the communities we serve.

Read more about how Elsevier supports open access and knowledge sharing.

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