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Publication Fees

 

Elementa is a fully open access journal, meaning that there is no charge to read, download, or use any content published, and content is published with open reuse licenses. In order to keep the journal free to read the University of California Press charges a flat article processing charge (APC) of $1,950 for every Research Article, Review article (including Special Feature Overviews), Policy Bridge, or Practice Bridge published in the journal.  Commentary and Comment and Reply articles carry an APC of $650.  

This fee helps us recover the costs of production, hosting, and a number of other services related to article publication and overall journal management. A portion of every APC collected from authors (currently, $275 per article) is automatically allocated to a fee waiver fund that is used to help authors who lack external or institutional funding pay their publication fees. 

UC Press has partnered with Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) to process author APC payments.  Upon acceptance of a paper for publication the primary author, also known as the corresponding author, will receive an email with detailed instructions and a link to either pay the fee through CCC’s secure e-commerce system or generate an invoice, which can be used to pay by check, wire, or other means.  Accepted articles will not be published until funds have been received.  Because we try to keep our APCs low, and because a portion of the proceeds is diverted to a waiver fund, we ask that all of those who have the means to pay refrain from requesting fee waivers and other discounts.  Your payments ensure that as many researchers as possible have the opportunity to publish in the journal.

APC Discounts and Waivers

The University of California Press offers several discount and waiver programs in order to try to ensure that anyone wishing to publish in the journal has the opportunity to do so without regard to their ability to pay.  In some cases, the discount may be applied automatically, and in other cases, it must be requested.  


  • University of California fee waiver—Fees are currently waived for all faculty, staff, and students of the University of California system who are corresponding authors on Elementa papers.  The Editorial Committee of the Academic Senate has allocated funding specifically for this use.  The waiver will be applied upon acceptance of the article.

  • Discount for authors from low and middle-income countries—Corresponding authors whose primary affiliations are eligible for the Research4Life program, Groups A & B, are currently automatically offered a 75% discount through CCC’s e-commerce system.  This discount will be applied when an eligible author clicks the link to pay their fees or generate an invoice for payment.

  • Fee Waivers— If you are unable to pay all or a portion of the APC for your article, you may request a fee waiver from the University of California Press during the submission process.  A member of the UC Press team will be in contact with you regarding your waiver request as soon as it is received.  Waiver requests are subject to the availability of funding in the fee waiver fund and will not be considered in editorial decisions.  Waivers will not be granted once an article has been accepted for publication.


**Please note that University of California Press limits its APC waivers to two waivers per corresponding author per open-access journal per year, with the exception of corresponding authors affiliated with the University of California. Authors are expected to pursue and exhaust other funding options before requesting an APC waiver from UC Press.


We thank you in advance for your support of the Elementa.  Our wish is to continue to maintain the journal’s high quality and standards, and your prompt attention to the payment of article processing charges ensures that we can continue our focus on delivering an outstanding experience to authors, researchers, and readers.
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