Agreement between CAPES and Elsevier
The Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and Elsevier have established a Read and Publish agreement, which provides funding for open access (OA) article publication charges in Elsevier hybrid journals for corresponding authors affiliated with institutions participating in the CAPES Journals Portal, as listed in this agreement.
Under the terms of the contract, when publishing OA in hybrid journals included in the agreement, eligible corresponding authors may have the Article Publishing Charge (APC) covered by CAPES.
When does the agreement apply?
The agreement applies exclusively to articles with an editorial acceptance date between January 1, 2026, and December 31, 2028. Regardless of the submission date, articles accepted outside this period are not eligible for APC coverage under this agreement.
Process
How does the process work?
Step 1: Select a journal that is eligible under the terms of this agreement. Follow the guidance in the Journals section below to find out which titles are included.
Step 2: Submit your article via your chosen journal’s submission system. When asked to enter your email address, please ensure you use your institutional email address – this is how we validate your eligibility for this agreement.
Step 3: The submission system presents you with personalized publishing options, including any relevant agreements or offers, such as the CAPES agreement. If you are submitting to a hybrid journal, you will be asked to choose whether you wish to publish open access – don’t worry if you are unsure at this stage, because we will ask you this question again post-acceptance. You will then be presented with license options and must mandatorily confirm the CC BY license, as established by Ordinance No. 120.
Step 4: If the journal accepts your article, you will receive an email containing a clickable link to the “post acceptance author journey”. During this journey, we ask you to review and confirm your affiliation and funder details. This information is used by the system to determine which personalized publishing options to show you, including the option to publish under the CAPES –Elsevier agreement (select this option).
Step 5: Confirm your publishing choices, including your desire to publish open access, and complete the post acceptance journey.
Step 6: CAPES validates your eligibility for the agreement. Please note: The final decision on your eligibility lies with the person at CAPES responsible for managing and administering this agreement.
Step 7: You and your co-authors will receive an email to confirm that the APC will be covered under the agreement between CAPES and Elsevier.
Which institutions are covered by this agreement?
This agreement supports corresponding authors (see FAQ at the bottom of this page) affiliated with institutions participating in the CAPES Journals Portal, as listed in this agreement and in accordance with the agency’s current regulations.
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. The link below takes you to a list of Elsevier eligible journals for which the APC is covered under the terms of this agreement.
Financial aspects and limitations
The agreement exclusively covers the Article Publishing Charge (APC) for Elsevier hybrid journals.
Additional editorial costs that may be charged by journals,such as excess pages, color figures, or supplementary materials, are not included and remain the responsibility of the authors.
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 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
For the purpose of eligibility under the agreement, there can be only 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, it is the corresponding author’s affiliation that is used to determine eligibility for this publishing agreement.
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 and 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.
Note: While journals may comply with requests to display multiple corresponding authors in the published article, the affiliations of these other corresponding authors will not be taken into account when evaluating eligibility for this agreement.
Under the terms of this agreement, authors can choose between several licenses, but under the terms of this agreement, authors must mandatorily choose the Creative Commons CC BY license, in accordance with Ordinance No. 120 and its amendments. The license choice is dependent on the journal selected. Please refer to the journal's homepage for specific details.
The following article types are covered by this agreement:
Case reports
Data in Brief articles
Full-length articles
Micro-articles
Original software publications
Practice guidelines
Protocols
Registered report articles
Registered report protocols
Replication studies
Review articles
Short communications
Short surveys
Video articles
Yes, being affiliated with a participating institution doesn’t always guarantee that your article will be matched to an agreement. Eligibility depends on several factors, including:
The journal type (e.g., whether it’s hybrid or fully open access).
Whether the journal you have submitted to participates in the agreement.
The acceptance date of your article relative to the agreement’s active period.
The article type
Mandatory adoption of the Creative Commons CC BY license
Institutional affiliation of the corresponding author with an institution participating in the agreement, in accordance with Article 10 of CAPES Ordinance No. 120 of April 26, 2024
Existence of a unique ORCID identifier associated with the corresponding author
Linking of the corresponding author’s ORCID identifier to their CAPES profile via meusdados.capes.gov.br
Authors can continue to choose to publish under the subscription model, which includes the option to self-archive your manuscript in line with Elsevier’s sharing policy.