Agreement between KAUST and Elsevier
Elsevier and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have established an agreement to support affiliated authors who wish to publish open access.
The cost of publishing open access is reduced under the terms of this agreement. Eligible corresponding authors receive a discount on the article publishing charge (APC).
How does the process work?
The process of publishing under the agreement is straightforward:
Step 1 – Once the journal accepts your article, you will receive an email containing a link to the “post acceptance author journey”.
Step 2 – You will be asked to review your affiliation and funder details. Based on this information, you will see personalised publishing options including the option to publish under the agreement.
Step 3 – You will confirm your publishing choices and complete the post acceptance journey.
Step 4 – Your institution will validate your eligibility for the agreement
Step 5 – You and your co-authors will receive an email to confirm that the APC will be covered by the agreement. Please note that the number of APCs included under the agreement is fixed and will be allocated based on date of acceptance.
During the submission process, the system will present you with personalised publishing options including any agreement or offer that you may be eligible for. You can indicate your publishing choice during submission, but you are not required to finalize your choice until after acceptance.
Which institutions are covered by this agreement?
This agreement supports corresponding authors (see FAQ at the bottom of this page) affiliated with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
Which journals are included in this agreement?
Authors can publish eligible articles (see FAQ at the bottom of this page) in a wide variety of participating Elsevier journals across a range of disciplines.
What are the author benefits of publishing open access with Elsevier?
There are lots of good reasons to publish open access; for example, the fact that OA articles are openly and widely available means it’s easy for others to find and build upon them, helping to accelerate discovery. In addition, publishing OA is a growing funder requirement. But with predatory journals on the rise, it’s important to ensure that the journal you publish in is reputable and trusted. When you publish open access with Elsevier, you benefit from:
A proven reputation: We have over 140 years of experience curating and verifying scientific knowledge.
Visibility: Your published article is included in the world’s biggest publishing platform, ScienceDirect, which has 20 million monthly unique visitors. In addition, your article is indexed and shared as widely as possible.
Choice: Our hybrid journals and fully OA journals span every scientific discipline and every tier of impact.
Expert support: You receive advice and support from experienced professionals at each stage of the publication process from submission through to peer review and post-acceptance.
To learn more about the benefits of publishing open access with Elsevier visit our Open Access Author Hub.
Eligibility FAQs
Articles must have an original acceptance date between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2028.
For the purpose of eligibility under the agreement, there can only be one corresponding author. The corresponding author is the author who submits the manuscript and other documentation to the journal and is the primary contact between the journal and the co-authors. Importantly, the corresponding author’s affiliation will be used to determine eligibility for the publishing agreement. The affiliations of other co-authors are not relevant for agreement eligibility.
The corresponding author’s responsibilities include:
Ensuring that all authors have complied with the journal’s policies, including reviewing and approving the final version of the manuscript prior to submission.
Distributing and responding to communications from the journal (e.g., decision letters, reviewers’ reports).
Completing the post publication author journey including signing the Journal Publishing License Agreement, Rights and Access information form, and selection of open access options on behalf of, and with the agreement of, all co-authors of the paper.
Journals may follow requests of the team of authors and display other corresponding authors in the published article. Which corresponding authors are displayed on the published paper, however, is not relevant for agreement eligibility.
With this agreement, authors have a choice between a commercial (CC BY) or non-commercial (CC BY-NC-ND or CC BY-NC) license. The license choice is dependent on the journal selected. Please refer to the journal's homepage for specific details.
The following article types are part of this agreement:
Case reports
Data in Briefs
Full-length articles
Micro-articles
Original software publication
Practice guidelines
Protocols
Review articles
Replication studies
Short communications
Short surveys
Video articles