This guide outlines the support available to authors at Durham University, where the option to publish open access will incur a charge.
Authors seeking to publish open access in a journal or conference proceeding may be presented with a charge, usually in the form of an Article Processing Charge (APC), levied by a publisher in order to cover their costs for publication.
The guide outlines the different mechanisms available to authors at Durham, which may be able to cover the costs of open access publication where these apply.
It is important to note that if you would like an APC to be paid centrally from the UKRI or Wellcome Open Access block grants you must contact the Open Access Team at submission. If this is not done, we cannot guarantee that funds will be available for you at acceptance.
This funding may be used where:
This following are costs authors may face which we are able to charge to the UKRI Open Access Block Award, whilst funds remain:
Fully Open Access Journals and Platforms
Hybrid Open Access Journals
The UKRI Open Access Block Award can NOT be used to cover the cost of APCs in hybrid journals, except in the following cases:
In addition, open access access fees associated with monographs, book chapters and edited collections cannot be charged to the UKRI open Access Block Award. UKRI will be making dedicated funding available once the monographs policy is live in 2024, and before then it is permissible to include these costs in grant applications.
This funding may be used where:
This following are costs authors may face which we are able to charge to the Wellcome Trust Open Access Block Award:
Fully Open Access Journals and Platforms
Hybrid Open Access Journals
The Wellcome Trust Open Access Block Award can in general terms NOT be used to cover the cost of APCs in hybrid journals, except in the following cases:
In addition, open access access fees associated with monographs, book chapters and edited collections can not be charged to the Wellcome Trust Open Access Block Award. These must instead be requested directly from the Trust, as detailed on the policy guidance pages.
We have leveraged existing funding streams to support open access publication through a range of publisher agreements, many negotiated at a national level through cooperation with other Research Organisations across the sector.
These include Transitional Agreements (such as with Springer, Elsevier and the Cambridge and Oxford University Presses), agreements with native open access publishers (such as Public Library of Science, Open Library of Humanities and Frontiers) and Compliant Green agreements (such as with AAAS).
They are aimed to support Durham authors to make their research open access immediately upon publication, whilst constraining the costs of subscription access and publication and ensuring a sustainable income stream for academic publishers.
Further details of existing publisher agreements can be found on our Publisher Agreements Guide.
Institutional Open Access FundThe University has established an Open Access Fund to provide limited support for authors in the publication of their journal articles open access. The establishment of this fund provides an additional option for Durham University authors to consider when thinking about which journals to submit to and how they will ensure their articles are openly accessible. Prior to applying for funding from the Institutional Open Access Fund, it is worth checking whether you can access other open access options. These are:
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Criteria for applying to the Institutional Open Access FundFor those where the open access options above are not applicable, the Institutional Open Access Fund is available on a first-come, first-served basis, based on the following criteria (also see Institutional Open Access Fund Workflow PDF linked at the top of this page): 1. Eligible journal typesThe fund is available to pay APCs:
OR
When applying under the above criterion please note: i) Where the Durham author is not the corresponding author of an article in a hybrid journal do check with the corresponding author that the APC is not covered by a transitional agreement that their institution is part of. ii) Where the Durham author is not funded by a UK Research Council but a co-author is acknowledging UKRI funding, please note that we would expect the APC to be covered by the institution that the co-author is affiliated to (where relevant) OR
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2. Eligible authorsTo be eligible to request that an APC is paid from the Institutional Open Access Fund, the requesting author must be:
The fund is not open to honorary or visiting staff. Emeritus staff should contact openaccess.publishing@durham.ac.uk for further guidance. |
3. Eligible article types The institutional fund is available for:
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4. Eligible licences Licence options are limited and: |
5. Eligible individual APC amounts The institutional fund is limited and to ensure that as many authors as possible can benefit from it, the amount that will be paid towards an individual APC is capped at:
Where the APC charged by your chosen journal/publisher exceeds the amount above, it may be possible for part of the fee to be covered by the Institutional Fund and for the remainder to be covered by other means found by the author(s). Please contact openaccess.publishing@durham.ac.uk for further information |
Applying to the Institutional Open Access Fund
Important to note:
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How to request funds from the Institutional Open Access Fund:If you are satisfied that you meet all criteria above (you can check this by referring to the Institutional Open Access Fund Workflow PDF linked at the top of this page), then: 1. Complete this online form (accessible with your Durham University email address). The Research Support Team will respond to your request via your institutional email address. For further support with the completion of the form, or for any enquiries about the fund please email openaccess.publishing@durham.ac.uk |
Other Information:Academic Governance GroupThe Academic Governance Group is a sub-group of University Research Management Committee. Its role is to provide academic oversight of the management of the agreed Institutional Open Access funding stream. It will ensure that processes for providing access to funding to support open access publication for Durham University research take into account faculty research strategies and outcomes, as well as make full consideration of issues of equality and diversity in access to support at all career stages. |
FAQs1. Where an APC is in excess of set limits, how will this be supported by the Institutional Open Access Fund? Where an APC is above this level, the cost up to the maximum level as above can be covered by the institutional fund, with additional costs needing to be covered by an author or their department. 2. Do Honorary or Visiting staff have access to the Institutional Open Access fund? No. If they are co-authoring a paper with another member of the University (a member of staff with a contract of employment, or a research student for example) then the request should be submitted by them. 3. Do Emeritus staff have access to the Institutional Open Access fund? As for Honorary and Visiting staff, the expectation is that usually a publication which may be eligible for funding would be co-authored with a member of the University, and any request should be submitted through them. However, we have been advised that in certain instances there may be cases where a further review is required, and these requests will be submitted to the Academic Governance Group for review. Further information may be requested in this instance from the author. 4. Where a PGR author has left the University (and is the sole Durham author on the paper) can funding be requested from the Institutional Open Access Fund or via Transitional Publisher Agreements to help cover costs of open access publication supported by the University? We are unable to cover the costs of articles from the institutional fund. Whether an article can be covered by a Transitional Agreement by a publisher will be determined by the agreement with that publisher, and whether a Durham affiliation has been used by the author. Please contact openaccess.publishing@durham.ac.uk to discuss what support might be available. |