Open access (OA) is the practice of providing unrestricted access via the Internet to peer-reviewed scholarly research. Open access journals provide 'gold' open access, meaning immediate open access to all of their articles on the publisher's website. 'Gold' open access for individual articles is funded by authors, institutions, funders, or sponsors who pay an open access article-processing charge (APC) after acceptance.

What types of articles will Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open publish?
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open publishes Original Research, Experimental Articles, Special Topics, Follow-up Studies, Ideas & Innovations, Case Reports, Correspondence, Viewpoints, and Video articles. To enhance quality, readability and to be more competitive with other leading scientific journals, all manuscripts must conform to word-count standards for article length, references, and limited number of figure pieces. Please visit the Author Instructions for more information.

Why do authors pay article-processing charges (APC)?
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open is an open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal. To provide open access, the journal charges publication fees for each article published. These fees cover the expenses incurred by publication, including the peer review process, journal production and publication, and hosting and archiving fees. Fees vary by article type and are excluding tax/VAT. Any required taxes/VAT will be applied during the payment process. The APC is charged on acceptance of the article and should be paid within 30 days by the author, funding agency or institution. Payment must be received in full for the article to be published.

Staring on June 30, 2023, PRS Global Open's article processing charges will be as follows:

What costs does the article-processing charge (APC) cover?
Costs are involved in every stage of the publication process, from peer review to copy editing and hosting the final article on dedicated servers. Authors or funders will be asked to pay an APC so that these costs are addressed and the article can be published open access, wiht no subscription fees to read the content. By paying the APC, authors can post the final, published PDF of their article on a non-commercial web site, institutional repository or other non-commercial free public server, immediately on publication.

Does Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open offer a discounted rate to authors from emerging countries?
PRS Global Open offers full or partial equitable waivers for accepted articles from low-income and middle-income economies. Eligibility is based on the Research4Life eligibility criteria. Countries listed in Group A are eligible for the full waiver and countries listed in Group B are eligible for the partial (50%) waiver. The waiver is automatically applied based on the Corresponding Author's country information provided during submission.

To determine your eligibility, visit the Research4Life criteria page.
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​ At the time of submission to PRS Global Open, the "Region of Origin" selected by the corresponding author will determine eligibility to participate in this initiative. Eligible discounts will be applied automatically.

How will readers know articles are open access?
All open access articles will be marked with an icon bearing 'Open' on the full-text and PDF formats of the published work, and information on the type of creative commons license will be available on all article formats and listed in the article metadata.

Who retains copyright of the open access articles?
Authors retain copyright of their content. Open access articles will be freely available to read, download and share from the time of publication. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open publishes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Non Derivative 4.0 license. If your research is funded by one of the following parties who requires a CCBY license, you may opt for the Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY 4.0 license.

National Institutes of Health Research (NIHR)
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Charity Open Access Fund (COAF)
Department of Health (DH)
International Development Research Centre
Research Councils UK (RCUK)
Wellcome Trust
Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Swedish Research Council
World Health Organization (WHO)
World Bank
Worldwide Cancer Research
Yorkshire Cancer Research

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs: CC BY-NC-ND

This license is the most restrictive of the six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share it with others as long as they credit you, but they can't change the work in any way or use it commercially.

Attribution: CC-BY

This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered.

If I publish in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open, does this make me compliant with my funding body requirements?
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open 's services and policies ensure that authors can fully comply with the public access requirements of major funding bodies worldwide.

Is Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open online only?
Yes, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open is available online, with no print edition.

How do I subscribe to Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open?
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open is an open access journal, so no subscription is needed to read it.

Does Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open have an impact factor? Is Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open indexed in PubMed Central or Medline?
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open is indexed in Clarivate Analytics' Emerging Sources Citation Index, the required first step to achieving an Impact Factor. Journals indexed in the ESCI are regularly reviewed to be considered to receive an Impact Factor. Additionally, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open is indexed in PubMed Central, DOAJ, and Scopus.

Does Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open have clear editorial and ethical policies?

Yes, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open is a member of the Committee of Publication Ethics and adheres to their guidelines. More details on Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open s editorial and ethical policies can be found in the Editorial, Legal, and Ethical Policies.

Visit WK Open Health for more up to date information on Open Access and Wolters Kluwer's Open Access program.