The SHERPA databases help you find out the funders' policies on OA publishing and archiving as well as publishers' policies on OA archiving.
Publishing your work in OA provides unrestricted access and reuse of your research outputs even without a subscription to journal packages. This form of publishing is also known as the Gold OA.
Usually, an Article Processing Charge (APC) will be charged to authors when the paper gets accepted so that the research will be made available to readers and not just to subscribers. For Gold OA publications, copyright is usually retained by authors. Learn more from OA Copyright - Creative Commons licenses.
Authors have the option to publish in
Most OA and hybrid OA journals charge APCs, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand US dollars. Generally, APCs are covered by institutions or funders. However, there are still many OA journals that publish OA articles without charge. Many of these journals are managed by institutions or academic associations. An example would be London Review of Education, published by UCL Press. To find more of such journals, check here.
Publishing OA is one form of making your research articles openly accessible. If the APCs are an issue, or if you would like to publish in specific journals that do not have OA options, authors can go OA via Green OA route involving self-archival.
Transformative agreements, also known as transitional or "read and publish" agreements, are contracts signed between universities and publishers that transform the business model underlying scholarly publishing towards a fully open access model.
The Library has been working closely with various publishers to obtain cost-effective Transformative Agreements (or Read-and-Publish agreements) for PolyU researchers. In these agreements with the publishers, PolyU corresponding authors may benefit from a full waiver of APC to publish their work with an Open Access option.
Some publishers offer a waiver or discount to PolyU authors who are paying APC to publish their work open access. The discount varies depending on the Library's (or University's) agreement with the publisher. Check the table below to learn more.
Publishers that offer a discount on APC to PolyU Authors
Publisher | Journals include | APC Waiver or Discount | How to apply |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
All journals with an OA option (i.e. Gold OA and Hybrid OA journals) | 100% waived for articles accepted within 2021-2023. |
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All IOP's hybrid and gold OA journals (i.e. journals on List A-D) | 100% waived for articles accepted within 2023-2025. |
Authors can submit articles through normal procedure. Make sure the corresponding author is using PolyU affiliation and email. |
American Institute of Mathematical Sciences |
All journals with an OA option (i.e. Hybrid OA journals listed in the publisher's webpage) |
100% waived |
Authors can submit articles through normal procedure. Make sure the corresponding author is using PolyU affiliation and email. |
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All journals with an OA option | 100% waived for articles accepted in 2023. |
Authors can submit articles through normal procedure. Make sure the corresponding author is using PolyU affiliation and email. |
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All journals with an OA option | 100% waived for articles accepted within 2022-2024. |
Check the author guidelines on the publisher's webpage |
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All journals under Subscribe-to-Open (S2O) model, including Water, Science and Technology |
100% waived | Authors can submit articles through normal procedure. Make sure the corresponding author is using PolyU affiliation and email. |
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) |
All journals with an OA option | 15% discount | Authors can submit articles through normal procedure. Make sure the corresponding author is using PolyU affiliation and email. Discount will be automatically applied. |
BioMed Central (BMC), and SpringerOpen * PolyU School of Nursing is a member of BMC and SpringerOpen. |
A discount for authors of School of Nursing |
Check these pages to learn details: |
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* PolyU Library is a member library of JULAC, which is a partner of SCOAP3 (Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics). |
All journals participating in SCOAP3 | 100% waived | Check the author guidelines on the respective journal page |
Find other journals that publish OA without a charge
Over 11k OA journals publish articles without charging an APC. You can find these journals from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
Try limiting by Subject area, Publisher, or Language to discover the journals that suit your need! As always, do consider the general criteria for journal selection even for OA journals.
Many fake or predatory journals have emerged since the change in the publishing model. These journals publish articles as long as APC is paid, without giving a rigorous peer review process. As an author, you need to be cautious and avoid submitting your work to any of these journals. Publishing with such journals may ruin your research career.
Quick tools to help you identify potentially predatory journals:
Contact us if you need any assistance!
Here are some additional indicators to facilitate journal evaluation:
√ Positive Indicators | X Negative Indicators |
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