Publish Open Access with Elsevier Journals

UPDATED: JANUARY 2026

Authors affiliated with the University of Westminster may publish original research articles in any of Elsevier’s hybrid journals at no further charge to the author. This ‘Read & Publish’ agreement will allow you to publish eligible articles in a wide variety of participating Elsevier journals across disciplines through gold open access. This includes Cell Press and The Lancet.

Please note:

You must be the corresponding author who is affiliated with the University of Westminster at the point of acceptance.
This only applies to hybrid journals. A hybrid open-access journal is a subscription journal in which some of the articles are open access.
Fully gold journals (those that only charge open access publishing fees, and not subscriptions) are not included in this agreement.
Research and Review articles are covered. Case Reports / Data in Brief / Microarticle / Original Software Publication / Protocol / Replication Study / Short Communication / Short Survey / Video Article / Practice Guideline / Registered Report Article / Registered Report Protocol.
If you are no longer affiliated with either Westminster, or another eligible institution, at the point of acceptance of your paper, you do not qualify.
You are advised to use your institutional email address instead of your private email address, to enable Elsevier to better identify you as eligible under the agreement. Give the organisation name, University of Westminster, on submission.
This agreement is effective until the end of December 2028.

Find a participating journal in this agreement by title or by subject area: https://agreements.journals.elsevier.com/jisc

You do not need to contact us to gain permission. Just follow the instructions and see your article published fully open.

How does the process work?

The process of publishing under the agreement is straightforward:

Step 1 – Once the journal accepts your article, you will receive an email containing a link to the “post acceptance author journey”.
Step 2 – You will be asked to review your affiliation and funder details. Based on this information, you will see personalised publishing options including the option to publish under the agreement.
Step 3 – You will confirm your publishing choices and complete the post acceptance journey.
Step 4 – Your institution will validate your eligibility for the agreement
Step 5 – When publishing in subscription (hybrid) journals, you and your co-authors will receive an email to confirm that the APC will be covered by the agreement.

During the submission process, the system will present you with personalized publishing options, including any agreement or offer that you may be eligible for. You can indicate your publishing choice during submission, but you are not required to finalize your choice until after acceptance.

Other publishers with similar agreements:

American Psychological Association (APA) : We have a similar agreement for APA journals. Please see the APA post for more detail.
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM): We have an agreement covering journal articles and conference papers published by the ACM. Please see the ACM post for more detail.
Cambridge University Press: We have a similar agreement for CUP journals. Please see the CUP post for more detail.
Public Library of Science (PLOS): an agreement is now in place, allowing Westminster authors to publish in the gold open access journals: PLOS ONE, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, and PLOS Pathogens, without having to pay individual APCs. More details in the PLOS post.
Sage: We have a similar agreement for Sage journals. Please see the Sage post for more detail.
Springer Nature: We have a similar agreement for some Springer journals. Please see the Springer post for more detail, and a link to a list of eligible titles.
Taylor & Francis: We have a similar agreement for Wiley journals. Please see the Taylor & Francis post for more detail.
Wiley: We have a similar agreement for Wiley journals. Please see the Wiley post for more detail.