Listen to Cell Press Papers
Turn any cell.com article into audio. Open the paper in Chrome, click CastReader, and listen through the abstract and body — with the paragraph highlighted as the voice reads. Built for Cell Press's Atypon rendering.
Why Listen to Cell with CastReader?
Cell Press's Atypon platform is dense with chrome. CastReader reads the paper, not the sidebar.
Cell Family
Works Across Every Cell Press Journal
Cell, Neuron, Cell Reports, Current Biology, Cell Host & Microbe, Cell Metabolism, iScience, and the rest of the Cell Press portfolio on cell.com. One extractor covers them all — they share the same Atypon rendering.
Clean Audio
Skips Author Reveal Panels and Affiliation Popouts
Cell.com wraps author affiliations in collapsed <details> panels and wraps newsletter widgets in forms that share the page with the abstract. CastReader reads the abstract and body, and skips the invisible accordion contents + newsletter CTAs — starting cleanly from the title.
Follow Along
Paragraph Highlighting
Each paragraph highlights as it's read. When you hear a claim, glance at the screen to see exactly where in the paper the voice is — no scrubbing back to re-find the spot.
100% Free
Chew Through Your Cell Reports Backlog
Completely free. No signup, no subscription, no page quota. Cell Reports alone publishes hundreds of papers a month — turn your RSS backlog into commute audio.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything about listening to Cell Press papers with CastReader
How do I listen to a Cell paper?
Open the article page on cell.com in Chrome (URL looks like cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(XX)XXXXX-X). Click the CastReader icon. It reads from the title through the abstract and body.
Does it work for papers behind a paywall?
CastReader reads whatever HTML your browser has loaded. Cell Press papers become free-access after 12 months, and a lot of Cell Reports / iScience / Cell Host & Microbe content is open-access from day one. If your browser shows the full text, we read it. We don't bypass paywalls.
Which Cell Press journals are supported?
All of them on cell.com — Cell, Neuron, Cell Reports, Current Biology, Cell Host & Microbe, Cell Metabolism, Cell Chemical Biology, Molecular Cell, Immunity, Cancer Cell, Developmental Cell, iScience, and the rest. They share the same Atypon rendering.
Why was the voice reading weird text before the title?
It isn't anymore. Cell.com's Atypon template wraps author affiliations in collapsed panels with invisible text and author-reveal buttons rendered as zero-size icons. Earlier versions of CastReader read that noise. We now filter collapsed <details>, aria-hidden subtrees, and font-size:0 elements so the audio starts at the title every time.
What about figures and tables?
Figure and table captions are read inline because they're prose. The images and table data themselves are skipped — audio can't represent those. Paragraph highlighting tells you where you are if you need to glance at Figure 3.
Can I adjust reading speed?
Yes. 0.5x through 3x. Most users run 1.5x for introductions and 1.1x for methods.
Is it free? Any limits?
Completely free. No page or character limits. No account needed. CastReader is a free browser extension for Chrome and Edge.
Does it read reference lists?
No. References are skipped and inline citation markers are stripped so the audio flows cleanly. Use the visual version for following citations.
Start Listening to Cell Press Papers
Completely free. No signup. No limits. Install CastReader and open any cell.com paper.