The European Society of Radiology (ESR) is Europe's principal professional society for radiology, founded in 2005 in Vienna and now representing about 149,000 members across 188 countries, backed by 47 European national member societies. Unlike a commercial publisher, the ESR is a non-profit that publishes its journal family in partnership with Springer Nature: the hybrid flagship European Radiology, the gold open-access Insights into Imaging and European Radiology Experimental, and - since 2025 - three new gold open-access section journals (European Radiology Abdomen, European Radiology Breast, and European Radiology CVT). It also runs Eurorad, a peer-reviewed database of radiological case reports.

For authors, this structure matters in two ways. First, the society sets editorial direction and clinical standards while Springer Nature handles production, hosting, and open-access billing - so APCs, licensing, and transformative-agreement coverage all follow Springer Nature's systems. Second, every ESR title is a radiology or medical-imaging venue: if your paper is imaging research, an ESR journal is likely on your shortlist. This guide covers which title fits which paper, the open-access routes and real APC numbers, peer review, and how to submit.

All ESR titles sit in radiology and medical imaging:

• European Radiology - the society's flagship since 1991, covering clinical imaging across all organ systems and modalities. Hybrid open access.
• Insights into Imaging - launched in 2010 as the ESR's fully-OA journal; publishes original research, critical reviews, ESR guidelines and statements, and education-focused pieces.
• European Radiology Experimental - launched in 2017 for translational and experimental work: imaging biomarkers, contrast agents, AI and radiomics methods, phantoms, and preclinical studies.
• European Radiology Abdomen, Breast, and CVT - subspecialty gold-OA section journals introduced in 2025 to give focused homes to abdominal, breast, and cardiovascular-thoracic imaging research.
• Eurorad - a continuously updated, peer-reviewed teaching database of radiological case reports.

The catalog is small by design: six focused journals rather than a sprawling portfolio, all indexed prominently in the imaging literature (the established titles are covered in Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed/PMC).

APCs below are the 2026 list prices (before tax); Springer Nature revises prices annually, so check the journal's fees page before submission.

Three ways to reduce or avoid the fee:

• Transformative agreements - because the journals are published with Springer Nature, authors at institutions covered by a Springer Nature Read & Publish deal (Projekt DEAL, Jisc, and dozens of national consortia) can often publish OA at no direct cost. Check the ESAC registry or your library.
• Waivers - Springer Nature waives APCs for corresponding authors from the world's lowest-income countries and considers case-by-case discounts for financial need; request the waiver at submission, not after.
• Subscription route - European Radiology remains free to publish in if you don't need immediate OA; self-archiving (green OA) of the accepted manuscript is permitted under Springer Nature's standard per-title embargo terms.

OA articles are published under a CC BY licence by default.

ESR journals use single-anonymized peer review - reviewers know the authors' identities, authors don't learn reviewers'. Editorial boards are drawn from the ESR's clinical and academic community, and turnaround is a genuine strength: European Radiology reports a median of 18 days from submission to first decision, and Insights into Imaging about 17 days - fast for clinical imaging journals. Revisions and final decisions follow standard Springer Nature timelines.

1. Pick the journal. Match your paper's scope using the table above; each journal's aims-and-scope page confirms the fit.
2. Read the Instructions for Authors. Each title has its own guide covering article types, word limits, and figure specs. Vancouver-style numbered references are the norm.
3. Prepare the manuscript. Use the journal's Word or LaTeX template on SciSpace to match the required format, and prepare imaging figures to the journal's resolution specs.
4. Submit via Editorial Manager. European Radiology uses editorialmanager.com/eura; each ESR title has its own Editorial Manager site linked from the journal homepage.
5. Handle OA at acceptance. For hybrid European Radiology you choose the subscription or Open Choice route after acceptance; for the gold-OA titles, APC billing (or transformative-agreement coverage) is confirmed at acceptance.

ESR journals follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, and the society issues its own research and professional-practice standards for the imaging community. Clinical studies must document ethics approval and consent; AI and radiomics papers are expected to follow the reporting checklists the journals endorse. Retractions and corrections follow COPE-aligned Springer Nature procedures, and OA authors retain copyright under CC BY.