Membership

What membership is

An annual arrangement between a researcher, a laboratory or an institution and the publisher, under which accepted articles are charged at a reduced rate. It is a commercial relationship with the publisher's billing office, held entirely separately from the journal's editorial process.

Membership is optional. Authors who are not members submit on exactly the same terms and are handled in exactly the same way; the only difference is the invoice raised after acceptance.

What membership does not affect

Handling

Editors assign manuscripts according to scope, methodological needs, reviewer expertise and conflicts of interest. Membership does not influence those decisions.

Review

Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.The same standard applies to every manuscript.

Timing

Membership confers no advantage in review speed or acceptance.

Visibility

Articles are published open access under CC BY 4.0. Any optional non-editorial publisher services are described separately in the written agreement and do not affect scholarly evaluation.

Special issues

Special issue proposals are assessed on the topic and the proposer's standing in the field.Special issues

Tiers and terms

The standard article processing charge is USD 1,499 per accepted article, invoiced after acceptance. A member discount is applied to that invoice. Membership fees are separate from publication charges.

• The written agreement identifies the covered authors, membership period, applicable discount and how eligibility is established. Membership fees are separate from any APC payable after acceptance.
• Applicable discount terms are confirmed in writing by the billing office.
• For laboratory arrangements, the covered authors are identified in the agreement.
• Early-career rates for graduate students, clinical fellows and postdoctoral researchers are settled with the billing office on verification of status.

Institutional arrangements

Hospitals, reference laboratories and academic centers with an active clinical microbiology program can arrange coverage for their authors directly with the publisher. An arrangement normally settles the following.

• Which authors are covered, and how eligibility is verified at submission.
• Whether coverage is capped by number of articles or by value.
• Consolidated billing, so individual authors are not invoiced.
• A periodic report of what has been published under the arrangement.

Eligibility is checked by the billing office against the corresponding author's affiliation, after a manuscript has been accepted. It is not visible to the editors handling the manuscript.

Joining, renewal and cancellation

1. Inquire. Write to the editorial office with the tier you want and, for a laboratory or institution, the authors or affiliation to be covered.[email protected]
2. Confirmation. The billing office confirms the terms, the period and the fee in writing before anything is payable.
3. Term. Membership runs for twelve months from the date it is confirmed.
4. Renewal. The billing office confirms the renewal terms in writing. Contact the office before the end of the agreed membership period.
5. Cancellation. Contact the billing office about ending an arrangement; the applicable terms are those confirmed in the written agreement.

Questions about membership, invoicing or an institutional arrangement go to [email protected]. Questions about a manuscript go to the editorial office through the normal route.