NJB turns Open Access
Submitted by editor on 19 June 2025.
Nordic Journal of Botany will be an Open Access journal from 1 January 2026
This means that all papers will be freely accessible for anyone to read and share, directly upon publication. Authors and readers are able to share articles with anyone, on any platform and via any communication channel. Open Access increases visibility and helps research reach a larger audience – which generally leads to more downloads and citations. In addition, previous articles published under a subscription licence will be made free for anyone to read. We are convinced that Open Access offers many advantages over traditional subscription publishing and that the free and unlimited access to NJB’s research papers will strengthen the journal.
Although there are many advantages of Open Access, there are also potential concerns. When you move to a system with Article Processing Charges (APCs), you also risk building new barriers for some authors. We will do our very best to minimise the effects of this. As part of this, we will be able to waive the APCs for a limited number of authors (the criteria for waivers are to be decided by the EiCs). In addition to this, authors based in low- and lower middle-income countries will have their APCs waived or reduced by 50% through the research4life initiative. There are also an increasing number of agreements in place with our publisher Wiley, allowing authors to publish Open Access with no direct cost.
The move to Open Access will not affect the editorial process – the scientific evaluation of manuscripts is, and will remain, completely independent of our publication model. You can rest assured that NJB will continue to bring you the very best research in plant and fungal taxonomy and ecology also in the future, the only difference is that it is fully open for anyone to read.
APC and publishing agreements
Article Processing Charges
The APC for authors that are not covered by agreements or who are not eligible for waivers will be $1900 / £1580 / €1820. This will be applied to all accepted articles which have been submitted on or after 6 August 2025.
Agreements
In many cases the APC fee is covered by the authors' university or by their funders. The number of institutions covered by agreements is increasing each year. A full list of the current publishing agreements can be found here.
Waivers
Nordic Journal of Botany offers waivers and discounts to corresponding authors based in low- and lower middle-income countries through a partnership between the publisher Wiley and research4life. A list of eligible countries can be found here. The journal is also offering a limited number of internal waivers to authors who are not able to cover the APC. More information about eligibility and requests for internal waivers can be found here. In addition, Wiley is currently trialling the Open Access Pricing Power Parity Pilot which offers APC discounts to 33 countries across the Latin America region. The discounts are based on the Purchasing Power Index of each participating country. A full list of countries and discounts can be found here.