Elsevier - Transformative agreement

In over 1800 hybrid journals available on the ScienceDirect platform (Core Hybrid Journals).

In the four subscribed hybrid journals of the Cell Press collection (Neuron, Biophysical journal, Cell, Molecular Cell).

In Full Open Access journals. Excluded are journals of hybrid titles of The Lancet, the journals of the Clinics collection not publishable in open access and around 300 other titles of the editor not publishable in open access or for which open access publication is supported by other agreements.

The editor will provide the technical tools for the identification of qualifying authors as part of the publication process, which will be enabled on the Elsevier OA Platform (EOAP). The corresponding author will be identified via the name of the Scuola Normale as the organisation of affiliation. 

The affiliation is verified and validated by the referents of the Scuola Normale. 

For greater workflow transparency, we advise corresponding authors affiliated with the Scuola Normale to always use the formal name of the institution and the institutional e-mail addresses. 

The validation of the corresponding author takes into account the date of acceptance of the article on the part of the publisher independently of the date of the first submission.

If the institution does not recognise the qualifying author by the termination of the contract, the corresponding author will be offered the possibility to pay the APC outside the contract or to publish on the basis of the standard licence.

For the first two years of the contract (2023-2024), a pre-established distribution of APCs among the prescribing institutions is not envisaged for Elsevier hybrid journals; the APCs are progressively used up until the number available at national level is exhausted. Hence from 2025, for the remaining three years of the contract the number of APCs will become unlimited. 

For Cell Press journals the number of APCs is defined for each year, but in such a way as to cover almost entirely the estimated requirements. 

As regards Full Open Access journals, a pilot project has been activated for the years 2023 and 2024 based on the creation of a dedicated fund and pre-constructed, from which the costs of the articles will be deducted (20% discount on list price). 
At the end of the two years of the pilot project, Elsevier and the CRUI will assess whether or not to continue with this part of the contract. 

The contract also includes the retrospective recovery procedure in open access of articles published in the eligible hybrid journals, Cell Press and Full Open Access from 01/01/2023. For articles published in open access on payment, in any of the above mentioned journals, the author is entitled to reimbursement of the sums already paid for the corresponding APCs.