Why publish with eLife?

A faster, fairer and more transparent way to publish.

At eLife we do things differently. We publish every article selected for review as a Reviewed Preprint. Our approach to publishing gives you more control and puts the focus on meaningful engagement with your work. What can you expect if your work is reviewed by eLife?

Faster publication

Publishing with eLife combines the speed and transparency of preprints with the expert evaluation of peer review. 

On average, we publish Reviewed Preprints within 97 days of submission.* 

More control

If we agree to review your paper, then you have the security of knowing we will publish it.

After peer review, you can decide if or how to address reviewer feedback and if you would like to submit a revised version. The outcomes of peer review will not delay or prevent publication of your work.

Once your article is as good as it needs to be, you can choose to publish the Version of Record.

Direct evaluation

We’re creating a world where what you publish is more important than where. 

Our editors and reviewers write Public Reviews and eLife Assessments to help readers understand the strength of evidence and significance of your findings using a common vocabulary.

Because our reviewers don’t need to recommend ‘accept’ or ‘reject’, the focus is on providing constructive feedback on your article.

Hear from eLife authors

We’ve spoken to authors about their experiences publishing in the eLife Model and heard first hand what difference it made for them.

“authors have a lot of control in the publication process”
– Meike van der Heijden, Assistant Professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research
Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion and School of Neuroscience at Virginia Tech.

“an open ‘conversation’… without the threat of rejection”
– Patrick Allard, Professor in the Division of Life Sciences at UCLA.

"smooth, fair, and transparent"
– Ushio Masayuki, Assistant Professor at the Department of Ocean Science at
the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

And others:

“make positive impacts by contributing to such nourishing culture”
– Hironori Funabiki

“innovative and intriguing”
– Chunxiao Li

"exactly what our study needed" 
– Subhash Kulkarni

"I fully recommend the new model"
- Rebecca Jordan