SPIE Journals Open Access
SPIE journals are dedicated to advancing the science and application of light-based technologies, and committed to broad dissemination of the scientific record. In order to help SPIE journal authors reach a broad global audience, all of our journals offer open access publication. See the chart below to find a specific journal's open access policy.
Why Publish with Open Access?
- Open access increases visibility. Open access papers are downloaded 6× more on average than papers published under subscription access control in SPIE journals.
- Open access enables free information exchange.
- Authors who have open access mandates from funders can easily comply.
- Open access fees support SPIE as a not-for-profit society publisher with a mission to advance light-based research and technologies for the betterment of the human condition.
Open Access Policies for SPIE Journals
| Journal Name | Open Access Model | Publication License | Open Access Fee | Discounts (see below for details) |
| Journal of Applied Remote Sensing | Hybrid |
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$960 for author-choice open access ($660 for Letters) |
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| Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems | Hybrid |
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$960 for author-choice open access ($660 for Letters) |
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| Journal of Biomedical Optics | Fully open access starting 1 January 2019 (hybrid through 2018) |
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Through June 30, 2018: $960 for author-choice open access ($660 for Letters) Starting July 1, 2018: $1675 |
|
| Journal of Electronic Imaging | Hybrid |
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$960 for author-choice open access ($660 for Letters) |
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| Journal of Medical Imaging | Hybrid |
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$960 for author-choice open access ($660 for Letters) |
|
| Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS | Hybrid |
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$960 for author-choice open access ($660 for Letters) |
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| Journal of Nanophotonics | Hybrid |
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$960 for author-choice open access ($660 for Letters) |
|
| Journal of Photonics for Energy | Hybrid |
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$960 for author-choice open access ($660 for Letters) |
|
| Neurophotonics | Fully open access starting 1 January 2019 (hybrid through 2018) |
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Through June 30, 2018: $960 for author-choice open access ($660 for Letters) Starting July 1, 2018: $1675 |
|
| Optical Engineering | Hybrid |
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$960 for author-choice open access ($660 for Letters) |
|
One Flat Fee, Fully Open Research
- Gold open access. Gold open access means publication under a Creative Commons (CC BY) license, where the authors retain ownership of the copyright. All paid open access SPIE journal papers are published under a CC BY 4.0 license.
- No overage charges for extra pages. The open access fee is the same whether your paper is 4 pages or 40. Additionally, all SPIE journal papers are professionally copyedited and typeset for no additional cost to authors.
- No embargoes. If you pay for open access, then your paper will be published on the SPIE Digital Library with open access from day one.
- No additional article processing fees. For our hybrid author-choice journals (see table above), there are no mandatory publication fees. If you don't want to publish with open access, you don't pay anything.
Different Needs, Different Choices
Author-Choice Open Access
We know that not all research communities value open access publication in the same way, and for many journals author-choice open access is the best of both worlds. Eight SPIE journals are published under this hybrid model. By allowing you to choose open access only when you want it, you control how your research budget is spent.
Because SPIE's hybrid journals are funded by both open access fees and subscription fees from institutions and members, we are able to keep both open access fees and subscription rates low. Our author-choice open access fee of $960 is considerably lower than most similar journals, and to support libraries SPIE has either frozen subscription prices or had below industry average increases over the past ten years.
Full Open Access
Authors and editors from our biomedical optics journals have asked SPIE to make the journals fully open access to reflect the publication trends in these research communities. We listened. The Journal of Biomedical Optics and Neurophotonics will become fully open access, including the entire back file of previously published articles, on January 1, 2019. The open access fee will be mandatory for all accepted papers submitted to these journals beginning July 1, 2018.
Discounts
Discounts to the open access fee may be applicable. See the table above to see which discounts apply to a specific journal. Note that only one discount can be applied per paper.
- Review and Tutorial authors: Invited review and tutorial articles are made freely available on the SPIE Digital Library. This benefit applies to review and tutorial authors for all SPIE journals.
- Members: If any author of a paper is an SPIE member, the paper is eligible for a 25% discount on the open access fee, reducing the fee to $1255. This discount only applies to fully open access journals.
- Authors affiliated with an institution that subscribes to the SPIE Digital Library: The SPIE Digital Library holds the world's largest collection of optics and photonics applied research, which contains more than 470,000 articles from SPIE journals, proceedings, and books. If any author on a paper is affiliated with an institution that has a full subscription to the SPIE Digital Library, the paper is eligible for a 25% discount on the open access fee, reducing the fee to $1255. This discount only applies to fully open access journals.
- Special economic consideration nations: If all authors on the paper are from eligible countries on the SPIE special consideration list
, the open access fee will be $425. This discounted fee applies only to fully open access journals. - SPIE journal editors: Editorial board members and guest editors receive a 25% discount on the open access fee on any paper on which they are an author. This discount applies to all SPIE journals.
License Types
Details about rights and restrictions of the SPIE Copyright Transfer and the CC BY 4.0 license can be found on our webpage about article-sharing policies.
