Construction and Building Materials APC and Open Access: Elsevier's Premium Price for a Core Engineering Journal

Elsevier has one of the largest networks of Read & Publish (transformative) agreements in academic publishing. These agreements are the key to making Construction and Building Materials' OA fee painless:

If your institution has an Elsevier Read & Publish agreement, the $3,800-$4,200 APC is covered automatically. You submit your paper, select gold OA at acceptance, and the system checks your institutional affiliation. If there's a match, you pay nothing.

This is a major advantage of publishing with Elsevier. The publisher's agreement network is so extensive that a significant percentage of authors at European and some US institutions get free gold OA. For researchers at Dutch, German, or UK universities, every Elsevier hybrid journal is effectively a free gold OA journal.

If you're unsure whether your institution is covered, check Elsevier's institutional agreement checker or ask your library.

For most authors without institutional OA coverage, the subscription track is the practical choice. Here's how it works:

1. You submit and go through peer review normally
2. At acceptance, you choose "subscription" rather than "open access"
3. Your article is published behind the ScienceDirect paywall
4. Anyone at an institution with a ScienceDirect subscription can read it (this covers most research universities worldwide)
5. After the embargo period (typically 24 months for Elsevier), you can self-archive the accepted manuscript in your institutional repository

The 24-month embargo is Elsevier's standard for most journals. It's long. This is the core tension of hybrid publishing: the free option comes with a significant access delay for the general public and researchers at institutions without subscriptions.

For many civil engineering researchers, this trade-off is acceptable. The audience for construction materials research is overwhelmingly at universities and research institutes that already have ScienceDirect access.

Construction and Building Materials is one of the most important journals in civil engineering and construction materials research. Some key facts:

• Impact factor: 7.4 (2024), which places it among the top journals in its category
• Annual volume: Approximately 4,000-5,000 articles per year, making it one of the largest civil engineering journals
• Founded: 1987 by Elsevier
• Scope: All aspects of construction materials, including concrete, steel, timber, polymers, composites, recycled materials, geomaterials, and material testing methods
• Indexed in: Scopus, Web of Science (SCIE), EI Compendex, and all major engineering databases

The journal's broad scope is its defining characteristic. It covers everything from cement chemistry to structural timber to recycled aggregate concrete. This breadth attracts a large author base and generates high citation volumes, which supports the strong IF.

Construction and Building Materials is particularly strong in:

• Concrete technology and cementitious materials
• Sustainable and recycled construction materials
• Geopolymers and alternative binders
• Structural performance of materials under various conditions
• Durability and deterioration of building materials

The journal has seen rapid growth in submissions from researchers in China, India, and the Middle East, regions with massive construction activity and growing research output. This has increased competition for space but also broadened the journal's global influence.

This is where hybrid journals get complicated. The subscription track is NOT compliant with most major funder mandates because Elsevier's 24-month embargo exceeds the limits set by Plan S (zero embargo), UKRI (zero embargo for gold OA), and Horizon Europe (zero embargo).

If your research is funded by a Plan S funder, UKRI, ERC, or Horizon Europe, you effectively must pay the $3,800-$4,200 OA fee or find an institutional agreement that covers it. The subscription track won't satisfy your funder's requirements.

For NIH-funded researchers, the situation is slightly more flexible. The NIH Public Access Policy can sometimes be satisfied through green OA deposit in PubMed Central, but the timing depends on embargo specifics. Gold OA is the safest route.

• No page charges on the subscription track. If you choose subscription, the entire publication is free.

• Color figures are free in the online edition but may incur charges in print (though most readers access the journal digitally).

• Supplementary data is free to upload.

• Tax applies. VAT or local sales tax may be added to the OA fee.

• Elsevier's production process includes professional typesetting and figure formatting. This is generally high quality.

• Transfer option: If rejected, Elsevier may suggest transfer to another Elsevier journal (like Case Studies in Construction Materials or Journal of Building Engineering). This saves time resubmitting.

• Preprints: Elsevier allows preprint posting. You can post to SSRN, arXiv, or your institutional repository before submission.

• Revision timelines: Major revisions typically get 60-90 days. Extensions are usually granted on request.

Construction and Building Materials uses a standard single-blind peer review process. Each paper is typically assigned 2-3 reviewers. The editorial board includes international experts across all construction materials subdisciplines.

Review timelines are moderate:

• First decision: Typically 45-60 days from submission
• Total time to publication: 4-8 months including revisions
• Acceptance rate: Estimated at 25-35%, making it moderately selective

The journal receives a very high submission volume (15,000+ per year), which means desk rejection rates are significant. Papers that don't fit the scope, have obvious methodological weaknesses, or are poorly written in English are rejected before review. Making sure your manuscript is polished before submission saves weeks.

Construction and Building Materials makes sense when:

1. Your research is about construction materials and you want a high-impact home
2. Your institution has an Elsevier Read & Publish agreement (making gold OA free)
3. You don't need OA and are happy with the subscription track at $0
4. You want the broad scope that accommodates diverse material types

It's less ideal when:

1. Your paper is specifically about cement/concrete (try Cement and Concrete Research first)
2. You need gold OA but don't have institutional coverage and $3,800+ is too expensive
3. You want a faster review timeline (consider PLOS ONE or MDPI journals)

For the latest submission guidelines and APC details, visit the Construction and Building Materials page on Elsevier.

Before submitting, make sure your manuscript's methodology section, figures, and references meet the journal's standards. Construction and Building Materials submission readiness check to catch problems that lead to desk rejection at selective journals like this one.

Worth paying if:

• Your funder mandates open access (check Plan S / cOAlition S requirements)
• An institutional Read & Publish agreement covers the fee
• Open access visibility meaningfully benefits your research area
• The APC fits within your grant budget

Consider alternatives if:

• The APC is a personal out-of-pocket expense
• A subscription option or green OA (preprint + embargo) satisfies your funder
• Another OA journal with a lower APC would provide similar visibility