If your article is an output from an externally funded project, your funder might have a dedicated open research platform that you can use to publish the article Gold Open Access at no cost. Examples of such platforms include:

• Open Research Europe - for researchers funded by the European Commission, e.g. through one of the Horizon programmes.
• NIHR Open Research - for researchers funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
• Health Open Research (also known as "AMRC Open Research") - for researchers funded by Parkinson's UK.

If you are unsure whether your funder offers such a platform, ask the Library's Publications Team to check for you.

If your funder doesn't offer their own publishing platform, or if you would prefer to publish elsewhere, go to step 2 below.

Not all Gold Open Access publishing venues require payment. Those that do not are often referred to as "Diamond" or "Platinum" Open Access. These are commonly associated with specific universities (e.g. RGU or the University of Edinburgh), or are independent journals rather than being owned by a commercial publisher. You can search for Gold Open Access journals without APCs on the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

If you are unsure whether your preferred journal or publishing platform requires payment of an APC, contact the Library's Publications Team for advice.

If you have confirmed that your preferred venue does require payment of an APC, go to step 3 below.

The Library has agreements in place with many different publishers, which cover both access to their pay-to-read content as well as helping to offset APCs for Gold Open Access. These agreements are negotiated on our behalf at a national level, through Jisc and the Scottish Higher Education Digital Library consortium.

A full list of the deals available to RGU researchers is available elsewhere in this guide. You can also ask the Library's Publications Team to check a shortlist of journals for you, or you can try searching for journals using Jisc's "Transitional agreement look up" tool (though please note it doesn't cover all of our agreements and we cannot guarantee that it is accurate!).

If your preferred journal or platform is only partially discounted or is not covered at all by one of our deals, go to step 4 below.

Some funders invite grant applicants to include Gold Open Access costs as part of their submissions, in which case you might have some dedicated funds for this already as part of your award. Other funders may be willing to provide additional money for Gold Open Access on an individual basis. In either case, it is worth double-checking the terms and conditions of your grant to see whether your funder may be able to help you. Further information on the support offered by certain funding bodies is available in our guide on funder requirements for Open Access.

If you are unsure whether your funder offers direct financial support for APCs, contact the Library's Publications Team for advice.

If your funder cannot help you to pay for the APC, or if the support offered cannot cover the full APC in question, go to step 5 below.

Your School may have funds available to support Gold Open Access, depending on budgets and the cost involved. You should speak directly with your line manager or Head of School to discuss this.

If your School cannot help you to pay for the APC, or if the support offered cannot cover the full APC in question, go to step 6 below.

The Library manages a small institutional fund to support Gold Open Access. Details of the eligibility criteria and how to apply are located elsewhere in this guide.

If your article is ineligible for our Institutional Open Access Fund, or if there is insufficient money remaining in the fund to cover the APC, go to step 7 below.

In many cases, publishing Gold Open Access is not essential. You will normally be able to make your work available Green Open Access instead (i.e. via our OpenAIR@RGU repository, typically using the accepted manuscript). Green Open Access costs you nothing and can often still ensure that your output complies with any relevant funder requirements (including the REF Open Access policy).

You can learn more about the Green Open Access requirements of the REF and certain funders in a separate guide. If you want to check whether your journal supports Green Open Access, contact the Library's Publications Team for advice.

If you still want to publish Gold Open Access, or if the journal or platform in question doesn't support Green Open Access in a way that enables compliance with the requirements of the REF or your funder, then you will need to either choose a different journal or find a way of paying the APC yourself.

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2023 - 31st December 2025.
• Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
• Journals Covered. All ACM journals and conference proceedings, both hybrid and fully OA. Refer to the ACM website for a list of titles.
• Article Types Covered. All peer-reviewed research articles.
• Workflow. The corresponding author must be affiliated with RGU, selecting RGU as their primary affiliation and using their RGU email address when communicating with the publisher. After acceptance, you will be asked to complete an assignment of rights and permissions on ACM's eRights form. Choose to publish open access (i.e. granting ACM the non-exclusive right to publish your work) and select your preferred licence - we recommend CC BY.
• Other Details. Further information about the ACM OPEN model that supports this deal is available on the ACM website.

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2025 - 31st December 2025.
• Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs for articles that acknowledge certain funding (see "Other Details" below). Articles that do not acknowledge eligible funding are not covered by this deal. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
• Journals Covered. All BMJ journals, both hybrid and fully OA. Refer to the BMJ website for a list of titles: under the section "Find out if you are entitled to institutional funding", select Robert Gordon University. Further information then displays, including a dropdown list of titles covered by this deal.
• Article Types Covered. Original articles reporting on primary research (all funders); Review articles (only if funded by UKRI).
• Workflow. The corresponding author must be affiliated with RGU, selecting RGU as their primary affiliation and using their RGU email address when communicating with the publisher. After acceptance, the publisher should contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used to cover the APC for your article. The publisher should automatically apply a CC BY licence.
• Other Details. This deal applies only for articles that acknowledge funding from one of the following specific funding bodies:
  • Medical Charities:
    • Blood Cancer UK
    • British Heart Foundation
    • Cancer Research UK
    • Parkinson's UK
    • Versus Arthritis
  • UKRI:
    • Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
    • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
    • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
    • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
    • Innovate UK
    • Medical Research Council (MRC)
    • Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
    • Research England
    • Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
    • UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
  • Wellcome Trust

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2025 - 31st December 2026.
• Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
• Journals Covered. All Brill journals, both hybrid and fully OA. Refer to the Brill website for a list of titles.
• Article Types Covered. Research articles; Review articles.
• Workflow. The corresponding author must be affiliated with RGU, selecting RGU as their primary affiliation and using their RGU email address when communicating with the publisher. The publisher should automatically detect that your article is eligible to be published through this deal. Your article should then eventually be published under a CC BY licence.
• Other Details. Further information on this deal is available on the Brill website.

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2021 - 31st December 2025.
• Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
• Journals Covered. Most CUP journals, both hybrid and fully OA. Refer to the CUP website for a list of titles: under the section "Use our tool to find out if you are eligible for an Open Access waiver or discount", set the country as "United Kingdom", select Robert Gordon University as your institution and then select "View Your Publishing Agreement". Further information then displays, including a list of journal titles covered by this deal.
• Article Types Covered. Research articles; Review articles; Rapid communications; Brief reports; Case reports.
• Workflow. The corresponding author must be affiliated with RGU, selecting RGU as their primary affiliation and using their RGU email address when communicating with the publisher. After acceptance, choose Open Access. When choosing a licence, we recommend selecting CC BY. The publisher should then contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used for your article.
• Other Details. Further information about this deal is available on the CUP website.

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2022 - 31st December 2025.
• Offset Amount. The offset amount, eligibility criteria and workflow are different depending on whether the journal is hybrid or fully OA. See sections below for further information.
• Other Details. Further information on this deal is available on the Elsevier website.

Click on the sections below for further information about specific types of journal covered by this deal.

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2023 - 31st December 2025.
• Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
• Journals Covered. All Karger journals, both hybrid and fully OA. Refer to the Karger website for a list of titles.
• Article Types Covered. All articles.
• Workflow. The corresponding author must be affiliated with RGU, selecting RGU as their primary affiliation and using their RGU email address when communicating with the publisher. During submission and after acceptance, ensure that you choose Open Access if publishing in a hybrid journal. We recommend that you request a CC BY licence, which may not be offered by default but which is permitted by the publisher on request. The publisher should automatically determine whether this deal can be used to cover the APC for your article.
• Other Details. Remember that you will need to actively request a CC BY licence from the publisher, especially if this is something required by your funder. See our separate guide for a summary of some common funder requirements. Further information on this deal is available on the Karger website.

• Deal Duration. 11th July 2025 - 31st December 2025.
• Offset Amount. 20% discount on all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal. In addition, a small fund is available for full coverage of APCs. (APCs paid through this fund will benefit from a 30% discount rather than the usual 20%.)
• Journals Covered. All MDPI journals, which are all fully OA. Refer to the MDPI website for a list of titles.
• Article Types Covered. Research articles; Review articles; Case reports.

• Workflow. The corresponding author must be affiliated with RGU, selecting RGU as their primary affiliation and using their RGU email address when communicating with the publisher. During submission, on the "Submission Completed - Additional Options" screen, select Robert Gordon University in the "Institutional Open Access Program" (IOAP) dropdown. The publisher should then automatically apply the 20% discount to the APC for your article.

  The publisher will also contact the Publications Team about your article submission to confirm whether any of our remaining fund should be used to fully cover the APC. The Publications Team will normally allocate this on a first-come, first-served basis, and in accordance with the following two criteria:

  1. The submitting author must be affiliated with RGU (i.e. if the RGU author is just one of several corresponding authors, they must also be the one responsible for the article submission);
  2. The same submitting author must not already have had an APC fully covered by this fund in the current calendar year.
• Other Details. Further information on this deal is available on the MDPI website.

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2024 - 31st December 2025.
• Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs.
• Journals Covered. Most OUP journals, both hybrid and fully OA. Refer to the OUP website for a list of titles.
• Article Types Covered. Research articles; Review articles; Brief reports; Case reports.
• Workflow. The corresponding author must be affiliated with RGU, selecting RGU as their primary affiliation and using their RGU email address when communicating with the publisher. The publisher should then automatically detect that your work is eligible for using this deal and you will be routed through a process that shows you OA licensing options with no charges (we recommend choosing CC BY). You will then be guided to refer your article to this agreement - you should not need to select it or in any way opt in, in order to use this deal. A step-by-step guide for authors is available on the OUP website. The publisher will then contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used for your article.
• Other Details. Further information on this deal is available on the OUP website.

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2022 - 31st December 2025.
• Offset Amount. Full coverage of three APCs each year. (None remaining for 2025)
• Journals Covered. RSC hybrid journals only (i.e. all RSC journals except: the Chemistry Education Research and Practice journal, and those journals marked as "Gold Open Access"). Refer to the RSC website for a list of titles.
• Article Types Covered. All peer-reviewed articles.
• Workflow. The corresponding author must be affiliated with RGU, selecting RGU as their primary affiliation and using their RGU email address when communicating with the publisher. This deal should be automatically applied on a first-come, first-served basis. After acceptance, you should be offered a choice of open licences, rather than the standard licence to publish. When choosing a licence, we recommend selecting CC BY.
• Other Details. Further information on this deal is available on the RSC website.

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2025 - 31st December 2025.
• Offset Amount. The offset amount, eligibility criteria and workflow are different depending on whether the journal is hybrid or fully OA. See sections below for further information.
• Other Details. Further information on this deal is available on the Sage website/.

Click on the sections below for further information about specific types of journal covered by this deal.

SCOAP3 is a consortium of libraries and other institutions, which has set up a discipline-based agreement with the publishers of a small number of journals. The journals in question publish research in high energy physics.

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2025 - 31st December 2027.
• Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
• Journals Covered. Refer to the SCOAP3 website for a list of titles.
• Article Types Covered. All articles.
• Workflow. Submit your work to the journal as normal. It should automatically be published open access after acceptance, regardless of your institutional affiliation.
• Other Details. The SCOAP3 deal covers all articles in some journals, but only high energy physics articles in other journals. This normally depends on each journal's scope. See an FAQ on the SCOAP3 website (specifically the question "Are all articles in a SCOAP3 journal automatically made Open Access?".

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2023 - 31st December 2025.
• Offset Amount. The offset amount, eligibility criteria and workflow are different depending on whether the journal is hybrid (and if so, whether it is published by Nature or one of Springer's other imprints) or fully OA. See sections below for further information.
• Other Details. Further information on this deal is available on the Springer website.

Click on the sections below for further information about specific types of journal covered by this deal.

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2024 - 31st December 2025.
• Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs. There is a national limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal in any given year. This entry will be updated if the limit is reached within a given year.
• Journals Covered. The eligibility criteria and workflow are different depending on whether the journal is hybrid or fully OA, or whether you are publishing on one of the open research platforms rather than in a journal. See sections below for further information.
• Other Details. Further details about the agreement are available on the Taylor and Francis website.

Click on the sections below for further information about specific types of journal and publishing platform covered by this deal.

• Deal Duration. 1st January 2024 - 31st December 2025.
• Offset Amount. The offset amount, eligibility criteria and workflow are different depending on whether the journal is hybrid or fully OA. See sections below for further information.
• Other Details. Further details about the agreement are available on the Wiley website.

Click on the sections below for further information about specific types of journal covered by this deal.