Under a traditional publishing model, journal subscribers (such as libraries) absorb the costs of publishing. Various open access alternatives are emerging as a counter to the traditional model. Some of these alternatives involve publication costs instead being charged to the author - costs you will sometimes hear referred to as article processing charges (APCs). Sometimes libraries both subscribe to a journal and provide funding for authors to publish in that journal - essentially paying the publisher twice. Fully open access journals (known as "Gold Open Access" don't require library subscriptions, although they may still charge APCs. Here are some steps you can take to fund the payment of APCs, or otherwise make your work open and available.
Many funders will allow you to add APC costs into your grant budget. To do this, research open access journals in your field and their costs for publishing. From this you can estimate publication costs in your grant.
Language to include in a grant from Simon Fraser University:
I expect to publish [number] peer-reviewed journal articles based on the research directed under this grant. Sample journals in my field that are possible places for publication include : [journals]. Article processing charges for these journals currently range in cost from [$xx.xx-$xx.xx]. Therefore, I am requesting [$xx.xx] in funding to cover the expected APC costs for peer-reviewed journal articles from this grant.
For more grant support, contact SPARC at UNCW.
Randall Library partners with the following publishers to offer waivers and discounts on APCs to UNCW authors. These waivers and discounts are applied as part of the publisher's manuscript submission process.
UNCW authors who publish open access in Wiley journals have their APC costs waived. The corresponding author of the article must be affiliated with UNCW. Read more about the agreement here.
UNCW authors who publish open access in CUP journals have their APC costs waived. The corresponding author of the article must be affiliated with UNCW. Read more about the agreement here.
UNCW authors who publish open access in ACM journals have their APC costs waived through the ACM Open model. The corresponding author of the article must be affiliated with UNCW. Read more about the agreement here.
UNCW authors who publish open access in Company of Biologists journals have their APC costs waived. The corresponding author of the article must be affiliated with UNCW. Read more about the agreement here.
UNCW authors who publish in SAGE journals receive 10% off the cost of their APCs. To take advantage of this discount, complete the following steps:
For articles accepted for publication in a gold open access journal (a journal in which all content is published open access under a Creative Commons licence – visit the journal’s individual website on SAGE Journals to find out if it’s an open access journal) the author should email APCqueries@sagepub.co.uk when they are asked to arrange payment of the APC. The author should include the following information:
The open access team will verify that the institution is a member of the Carolina Consortium. and will provide the author with a discount code and instructions on how to apply the code at checkout in the payment system.
Platinum (also called Diamond) Open Access refers to open access journals that don't charge APCs. These journals are often fully funded by their home institutions, grant support, etc. A searchable directory of reputable open access journals without APCs can be found in the Directory of Open Access Journals.
Even if your research is not published fully open access, many publishers have self-archiving policies that allow you to make your work freely available at no cost. Typically, these agreements allow you to place the final accepted version of your peer reviewed article without the publisher's formatting in a repository, sometimes with an embargo This model is called Green Open Access. At UNCW, Randall Library hosts a repository of self-archived research for just this purpose called Seahawk DOCKS. Other options include disciplinary repositories and even personal websites. You can check if the journal you're publishing in allows Green Open Access at here.
Seahawk DOCKS is UNCW's portion of a shared database called North Carolina Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship (NC DOCKS). Designed by UNC Greensboro and shared with UNCG, East Carolina University, Appalachian State University, and UNC Pembroke, NC DOCKS is designed to hold digital, online copies of faculty articles, white papers, and other scholarly works, in addition to student theses and dissertations. This type of database is often referred to as an "Institutional Repository," or IR.
Randall Library offers limited funding for APCs through our APC fund. The fund is kept small due to library budget and to minimize directing library resources (over and above subscription fees) to the same publishers asking for APCs to make our faculty’s articles open. In general, we advise faculty to use this fund as a last resort, as its availability is not guaranteed at a given time.
Some of UNCW's colleges offer funding for their faculty. Contact your Dean to find out if your college has any support or APCs or OA fees.