Science in general and research in particular are building elements of our modern societies that provide medical and technical improvements as well as cultural, educational and social benefits. However, it remains a fact that due to economic restraints in developing countries, the vast majority of publications issued in the field of molecular biosciences are authored in the financially more potent nations. This also applies to the microbial research field, even though the developing countries often suffer microbiological threats that cost or endanger millions of lives per year (e.g. leishmanosis, trypanosomal induced diseases, plasmodial diseases, cholera, etc).

Following these concerns, Microbial Cell has implemented a waiver program (DevResearch Program) that – depending on the applicant’s situation – partly or completely exempts corresponding authors based in low-income or lower-middle-income countries from paying the applicable publication fee upon acceptance. The goal is to facilitate and promote scientific authorship from developing countries and thus make a putative publication of suitable manuscripts not dependent on the economic viability of these nations but only on the work’s quality.

Microbial research combines both the possibility to work with affordable model systems as well as the direct medical applicability of obtained results to microbial-derived health issues. That is why – by means of its DevResearch Program – Microbial Cell also intends to promote the implementation of this research field into projects, programs and policies that help build a sustainable development at the scientific and social levels.

If you are a corresponding author from a low-income or lower-middle-income countries (according to The World Bank) and want to request a publication fee exemption in the frame of Microbial Cell’s DevResearch Program, please mention it, together with your current funding source(s), in the Cover Letter upon your original submission. Additionally, please fill and attach the DevResearch Application Form  to your original submission. Please note, that only applications presented together with your original submission will be considered. Importantly, neither receiving editors nor reviewers have access to payment information, and therefore an application for the DevResearch Program will not influence the decision to publish a manuscript.