Neuron APC and Open Access: Cell Press Pricing in Neuroscience and Why the Real Cost Is Hard to Predict

Neuron is hybrid, offering two tracks:

1. Subscription track (default, $0): Your article is published on the Cell Press website behind the paywall. Institutional subscribers have access. You pay nothing.
2. Gold open access track ($9,350): Your article is immediately accessible to all readers under a Creative Commons license.

The subscription track is the default, and it's what the majority of Neuron authors select. The neuroscience community has strong institutional subscriptions through Elsevier's ScienceDirect platform, so most researchers who would read your paper already have access. The calculus is different from a clinical journal, where practitioners outside academia might need OA to read your work. In basic neuroscience, the audience is almost entirely at universities with Elsevier access.

That said, some neuroscientists argue that OA increases citation rates and public engagement. There's evidence that OA articles get more downloads and slightly more citations, though the effect varies by field. In neuroscience, the citation boost from OA is modest compared to the boost from simply being published in Neuron.

The same problem that affects all Cell Press titles applies to Neuron. Elsevier's transformative agreements cover 1,800+ core hybrid journals, but Cell Press is excluded from the vast majority of these deals.

The UC system's 2025 Elsevier agreement expanded to include Cell Press, but most US and European institutions' Elsevier agreements still exclude Cell Press titles. The situation is slowly changing as more institutions push for broader coverage, but in 2026, the default assumption should be: your Elsevier deal does not cover Neuron.

Ask your library before committing. The specific question is: "Does our Elsevier Read & Publish agreement include Cell Press journals?" Not "Does our Elsevier deal cover Neuron?" because your librarian may not know that Neuron is a Cell Press title.

Elsevier's waiver system applies to Neuron:

Geographical pricing (GPOA):

Authors from lower-income countries receive discounted APCs through Elsevier's GPOA program. The discount is calculated automatically at the payment stage based on institutional affiliation and country. Discounts range from 25% to 100%, with the specific amount determined by Elsevier's internal country tier system.

This system is less transparent than Springer Nature's Research4Life framework. With Springer Nature, you know upfront: Group A countries get a full waiver, Group B gets 50% off. With Elsevier, you don't know your "personalized APC" until you reach the payment stage.

Financial hardship waivers:

Available on a case-by-case basis. Contact the editorial office after acceptance. Success rates are not publicly available.

No relevant society discounts:

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN), which publishes the Journal of Neuroscience and eNeuro, has no APC discount arrangement with Cell Press. SfN membership doesn't reduce the Neuron APC.

Neuron supports CC BY and CC BY-NC-ND licenses. Plan S mandates CC BY. Select CC BY during the licensing stage if your funder is a cOAlition S member. CC BY-NC-ND doesn't satisfy Plan S.

NIH-funded researchers can use the green route: publish for free via subscription, then deposit the accepted manuscript in PubMed Central after 12 months. This is the most common approach for US neuroscientists without OA coverage. The BRAIN Initiative and other NIH neuroscience programs don't currently require immediate OA, so the 12-month embargo route works.

HHMI researchers face a stricter requirement. HHMI requires immediate gold OA with CC BY. If you're HHMI-funded and publishing in Neuron, you need the $9,350 gold OA option. HHMI provides OA funding to cover this cost.

Neuron was launched in 1988 as Cell's neuroscience counterpart. It has a clear editorial identity:

• Systems and circuits neuroscience: Neuron has been particularly strong in papers that link neural circuit activity to behavior, including optogenetics studies, calcium imaging, and electrophysiology.
• Molecular and cellular neuroscience: Synaptic transmission, ion channel biology, neuronal development, and neurodegeneration.
• Computational neuroscience: The journal publishes theory and modeling work more readily than many wet-lab journals.
• Translational neuroscience: Disease mechanisms with clear links to neurological or psychiatric conditions.

The journal publishes approximately 200-250 articles per year with an estimated acceptance rate of 6-8%. Neuron is published biweekly, and first decisions typically arrive within 3-5 weeks. The editorial team is known for thorough reviews that often request additional experiments, particularly electrophysiology or behavioral validation.

One distinctive feature: Neuron publishes NeuroResources and Neurotechniques articles, which describe new tools, datasets, or methods. These article types are unique to Neuron among elite neuroscience journals and can have outsized citation impact when a new tool gets widely adopted.

No submission fees, page charges, or color figure fees. But be aware of:

• Tax: EU VAT adds 15-25% on top of $9,350. An $11,000+ effective cost is common for European researchers.
• Graphical abstract: Required by all Cell Press journals. Budget $200-$500 if hiring an illustrator. Cell Press has specific size and formatting requirements.
• Data sharing costs: Neuroscience datasets (electrophysiology recordings, calcium imaging, behavioral videos) can be large. Deposition in DANDI, OpenNeuro, or similar repositories is usually free, but very large datasets may incur costs.
• Code sharing: Neuron increasingly expects custom analysis code to be deposited on GitHub or Zenodo. This is free but requires time to clean and document code.
• Revision experiments: Neuron reviewers frequently request additional experiments, particularly in vivo validation of in vitro findings or behavioral testing. The cost of 3-6 months of additional experiments dwarfs the APC.
• License choice: Selecting CC BY-NC-ND when your funder requires CC BY creates post-publication headaches. Choose correctly at the licensing stage.

Neuron's cost situation mirrors the broader Cell Press pattern: high APC, limited institutional coverage, and a subscription track that's free.

1. Check Cell Press coverage. Ask your library if your Elsevier agreement includes Cell Press. If yes, choose OA.
2. HHMI-funded? You need gold OA with CC BY. HHMI covers the cost. Select OA at acceptance.
3. NIH-funded, no OA mandate? Publish via subscription for free. Deposit in PMC after 12 months. This is the standard path for US neuroscientists.
4. Plan S funder? You need gold OA ($9,350). Check if your funder or institution covers APCs.
5. No mandate, no coverage? Subscription track, $0. The neuroscience community has institutional access to Neuron, and your paper's impact won't differ based on access model.

The real barrier to publishing in Neuron is the editorial screen, not the APC. With a 6-8% acceptance rate, your manuscript needs to present a mechanistic or conceptual advance in neuroscience. Descriptive studies, even technically excellent ones, are typically redirected. Run a free readiness scan to evaluate your manuscript before submitting. For the complete Cell Press pricing landscape, see our Cell APC breakdown.