Dear SEB Member,

The SEB is inviting its membership to provide feedback on its publishing activities. This is your chance to have your say about how the SEB manages its journal portfolio and to provide input into the future direction of publishing at the SEB.


Intro
The SEB owns or co-owns five scientific journals:

SEB journal logos

All income to the SEB from its journals is reinvested into the experimental biology community through the SEB’s activities including grants, training, outreach, and events (including the annual SEB Conference). SEB members receive a discount when publishing in the society’s five journals.

Open access
Gold open access journals enable everyone to read their content immediately after publication without restriction. Plant Biotechnology Journal, Plant Direct, and Conservation Physiology are the SEB’s gold open access journals. Authors must pay an article processing charge (APC) to publish in a gold open access journal.

Hybrid journals provide authors with two options: authors may pay an APC for an open access licence, or they can publish for free under a standard, non-open access licence. Hybrid journals make their newest (non-open access) papers available only to subscribers (consortia, institutions, and individuals) for the first year, after which time papers are available to everyone. The Plant Journal and Journal of Experimental Botany are the SEB’s hybrid journals.

The SEB has committed to transitioning its two hybrid journals to open access journals. This transition is likely to lose the society significant income, thereby potentially restricting the work it is able to do. In addition, some researchers do not have funding to pay article processing charges (APCs) for gold open access journals and are not entitled to an APC waiver.

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