‘eLife’, a new open access journal

Open access
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome Trust are supporting a new open access online journal for biomedical and life sciences research. The organisations aim to establish a new journal that will attract and define the best research papers from across these fields.

The initiative follows a workshop held in 2010 at HHMI's Janelia Farm Research Campus, attended by a number of leading scientists. The participants concluded that there was a need for a model of academic publishing that better suits the needs of the research community.

A team of highly regarded, experienced and actively practising scientists will ensure fair, swift and transparent editorial decisions followed by rapid online publication. For transparency, reviewers' comments will be published anonymously.

The editorial team will be editorially independent of the funders. They will rely on their scientific expertise and active research experience to identify the best papers, make scientifically based judgements and exercise leadership in steering these papers through peer review.

As the journal will only exist online, it offers an opportunity to create a journal and article format that will exploit the potential of new technologies to allow for improved data presentation. The entire content of the journal will be freely available for all to read and reproduce for unrestricted use. This open access system will also enhance opportunities to share content and to more directly engage the reader.

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Press releases

Editorial team announced for ‘eLife’, the new open access journal to be launched next year
7 November 2011

New journal editor named as Randy Schekman
11 July 2011

Leading research organisations announce top-tier, open access journal for biomedical and life sciences
27 June 2011

Frequently asked questions

Wellcome Trust, Gibbs Building, 215 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK T:+44 (0)20 7611 8888