Open Access

Publishing Gold Open Access Journal Articles

Find out more about the support that is available for publishing Gold Open Access journal articles


What is Gold Open Access?

Gold Open Access is where the article is made open access on the publisher's own website (i.e. the journal website, or the publisher's database or platform - for example, Elsevier's ScienceDirect database), usually under an open licence. This typically involves the payment of an "article processing charge" or APC. Alternative business models exist (e.g. Diamond Open Access, Platinum Open Access and Bronze Open Access); however, all ultimately mean the same thing in that it is the version on the publisher's own website that is openly available.

Individual journals that support Gold Open Access might be fully open access (i.e. all articles are published Gold Open Access) or hybrid (i.e. the author chooses whether to publish Gold Open Access or "pay-to-read"). Different publishers refer to "fully open access" and "hybrid" in different ways. For example, hybrid journals are referred to by Elsevier as "hybrid", by Springer as "Springer Open Choice" and by Taylor and Francis as "Open Select".

Where APCs are involved, these can be very expensive - costs of over £2,000 per article are fairly common. The rest of this guide provides information about the support that is available to RGU researchers, to help them avoid, offset or otherwise pay for these APCs.


Publishing checklist

We recommend that RGU researchers work through the following checklist when trying to identify whether support is available for Gold Open Access journal publishing. Click on the entries in the checklist for further information about each step:

1. Check whether your funder offers their own open access publishing platform

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:

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.

2. Confirm whether your preferred journal or publishing platform requires payment of an APC

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.

3. Check whether the APC is covered by one of our offset (or "Read and Publish") deals

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.

4. Check whether your funder will provide direct financial support

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.

5. Check whether your School or department will provide financial support

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.

6. Check whether you can use our Institutional Open Access Fund

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.

7. Consider Green Open Access instead

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.


Library offset (or "Read and Publish") deals

This is a list of agreements available to RGU researchers, which can help to offset or entirely cover APCs in certain journals. It is not possible for us to provide a single list of journals, as this changes frequently over the duration of each deal. However, links are provided to the publishers' own up-to-date lists of eligible journals. Please contact the Library's Publications Team if you have any questions or need further support regarding use of these deals.

Click on an entry in the list below to view further information about our deal with that publisher.

Association for Computing Machinery

  • 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.

BMJ Publishing (certain funders only)

  • 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

Brill

  • 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.

Cambridge University Press

  • 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.

Elsevier

  • 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.

Elsevier hybrid journals

  • Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
  • Journals Covered. Hybrid journals in Elsevier's "Core", "Cell Press" and "The Lancet" collections. Refer to the Elsevier website for a list of titles.
  • Article Types Covered. Research articles; Review articles; Case reports; Data in brief; Microarticles; Original software publications; Protocols; Replication studies; Short communications; Short surveys; Video articles; Practice guidelines.
  • 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. When submitting your article, select the Open Access publishing option (this is an indication only). After acceptance, you will be asked to complete a "Rights and Access" form, which will include your final selection of publishing option - again, select Open Access. You should see that a 100% discount has been applied to the APC. When choosing a licence, we recommend selecting CC BY. Complete the rest of the "Rights and Access" form. The article should appear on the publisher's website within 48 hours. The publisher will then contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used to cover the APC for your article.

Elsevier fully OA journals

  • Offset Amount. 15% discount on all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
  • Journals Covered. Elsevier fully OA journals. Refer to the Elsevier website for a list of titles.
  • Article Types Covered. Research articles; Review articles; Case reports; Data in brief; Microarticles; Original software publications; Protocols; Replication studies; Short communications; Short surveys; Video articles; Practice guidelines.
  • 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 a "Rights and Access" form. On the "Publishing Options" page of that form, you should see that a 15% discount has been applied to the APC. When choosing a licence, we recommend selecting CC BY. Complete the "Rights" and "Publishing Agreement" pages of the form. On the "Payment Details" page, provide the details of the person to be invoiced for the remaining APC. Complete the rest of the "Rights and Access" form. The article should appear on the publisher's website within 48 hours. The publisher will then contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used to reduce the APC for your article.

Karger

  • 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.

MDPI

  • 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.

Oxford University Press

  • 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.

Royal Society of Chemistry

  • Deal Duration. 1st January 2022 - 31st December 2025.
  • Offset Amount. Full coverage of three APCs each year. (One 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.

Sage

  • 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.

Sage hybrid journals ("Sage Choice")

  • Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
  • Journals Covered. Sage hybrid journals ("Sage Choice"). Refer to the Sage website for a list of titles, specifically the section titled "Publish open access in a subscription journal", and the lists titled "Subscription journals: 2025 Sage Premier package", "IMechE Journal Collection" and "Royal Society of Medicine Collection".
  • Article Types Covered. Original research papers; Review papers; Brief communications; Short 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, you will be told that you are eligible to publish open access without additional payment. Confirm that you wish to do so on the publisher's OA portal within 14 days of receiving the email. When choosing a licence, we recommend selecting CC BY. (Note that Sage may offer CC BY-NC by default, but you can contact them to request CC BY instead.)

Sage fully OA journals ("Sage Pure Gold")

  • Offset Amount. 20% discount on all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
  • Journals Covered. Sage fully OA journals ("Sage Pure Gold"). Refer to the Sage website for a list of titles, specifically the section titled "Publish in a gold open access journal" and the list titled "Gold Open Access journals (TR)". The latter also notes where there is no APC for the journal in question.
  • Article Types Covered. Original research papers; Review papers; Brief communications; Short reports; Case reports.
  • Workflow. Make sure you have the funds to pay the discounted APC before submitting your article to the journal. To be eligible for the discount, 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 told that you are eligible for a discount on the normal APC. Confirm the OA publishing agreement on the publisher's OA portal. When choosing a licence, we recommend selecting CC BY. (Note that Sage may offer CC BY-NC by default, but you can contact them to request CC BY instead.)

SCOAP3

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?".

Springer (including Nature, Palgrave Macmillan and BioMed Central)

  • 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.

Hybrid journals by Springer ("Springer Open Choice"), Nature Academic and Palgrave Macmillan

  • Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
  • Article Types Covered. Original papers (also referred to as Original research, Original articles, or Research papers); Review papers; Brief communications; Continuing education.
  • Journals Covered. Hybrid journals by Springer ("Springer Open Choice"), Nature Academic and Palgrave Macmillan. Refer to the Springer website (section titled "Publishing open access in a Springer Portfolio journal") for a list of titles.
  • 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 told that you are eligible to publish open access without additional payment. After you have signed the licence, the publisher will then contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used to cover the APC for your article.

Hybrid journals by Nature Research

  • Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs. A national limit applies to the number of articles that can be covered by this deal each year. This entry will be updated if that limit is reached within a given year.
  • Journals Covered. Nature and hybrid journals by Nature Research. Refer to the Springer website (section titled "Publishing open access in a Nature Portfolio journal") for a list of titles.
  • Article Types Covered. Research articles, Original papers (also referred to as Analyses, Articles, Letters, Brief communications, Registered reports, Resources, or Technical 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, you will be told that you are eligible to publish open access without additional payment. After you have signed the licence, the publisher will then contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used to cover the APC for your article.

Fully OA journals by Springer ("SpringerOpen"), Nature, Palgrave and BioMed Central

  • Offset Amount. 15% discount on all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
  • Journals Covered. Fully OA journals by Springer ("SpringerOpen"), Nature, Palgrave and BioMed Central. Refer to the Springer website (section titled "Publishing in a fully open access journal") for a list of titles.
  • Article Types Covered. For Springer, Palgrave and BMC journals: Original papers (also referred to as Original research, Original articles, or Research papers); Review papers; Brief communications; Continuing education. For Nature journals: Research articles, Original papers (also referred to as Analyses, Articles, Letters, Brief communications, Registered reports, Resources, or Technical reports).
  • Workflow. Make sure you have the funds to pay the discounted APC before submitting your article to the journal. To be eligible for the discount, 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 told that you are eligible for a discount on the normal APC. Confirm the OA publishing agreement on the publisher's OA portal. The publisher will then contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used to reduce the APC for your article.

Taylor and Francis (including Routledge, Cogent and F1000Research)

  • 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.

Taylor and Francis hybrid journals ("Open Select")

  • Journals Covered. Hybrid journals by Taylor and Francis ("Open Select"), and Routledge. Refer to the Taylor and Francis website for a list of titles.
  • Article Types Covered. 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 select and sign a publishing licence (we recommend choosing CC BY). Once you have done this, the publisher will then contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used for your article.

Taylor and Francis fully OA journals

  • Journals Covered. Fully OA journals by Taylor and Francis, Routledge and Cogent. Does not include journals by Dove Medical Press. Refer to the Taylor and Francis website for a list of titles - note that this list misleadingly includes Dove Medical Press journals, even though these are not eligible for this deal.
  • Article Types Covered. 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. You should be notified during the submission process that your article is potentially eligible to be covered by this deal. After acceptance, you will be asked to select and sign a publishing licence (we recommend choosing CC BY). Once you have done this, the publisher will then contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used for your article.

Routledge Open Research and F1000Research

  • Journals Covered. Rather than journals, this part fo the agreement covers articles submitted to the Routledge Open Research platform and the F1000Research publishing platform.
  • Article Types Covered. Research articles; Method articles; Antibody Validation articles; Reviews; Systematic reviews; Clinical practice articles; Case reports; Opinion 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, the publisher will then contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used for your article.

Wiley (including Hindawi)

  • 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.

Wiley hybrid journals ("OnlineOpen")

  • Offset Amount. Full coverage of all APCs. No limit on the number of articles that can be covered by this deal.
  • Journals Covered. Wiley hybrid journals ("OnlineOpen"). Refer to the Wiley website (specifically links to their list of hybrid journals) for a list of titles.
  • Article Types Covered. Primary 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. After acceptance, you will be asked to log into Wiley's Author Services and select "Yes, make my article open access". (If you are asked to choose a licence, we recommend CC BY). The publisher will then contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used. See Wiley's hybrid workflow guide for more information.

Wiley and Hindawi fully OA journals

  • 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. Once the limit has been reached, for the remainder of the year there will instead just be a 15% discount on all APCs. This entry will be updated if the limit is reached within a given year.
  • Journals Covered. Wiley and Hindawi fully OA journals. Refer to the Wiley website (specifically links to their list of fully gold open access journals) for a list of titles.
  • Article Types Covered. Primary 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. On submitting your article, please agree to the APC. (If you are asked to choose a licence, we recommend CC BY). The publisher will then contact the Publications Team to confirm that this deal can be used. See Wiley's fully OA workflow guide for more information.

Institutional Open Access Fund (IOAF)

The Library have a small fund to help support Gold Open Access journal publishing. This fund runs from the 1st August through to the 31st July each year. If you have any questions about using the fund or any feedback about how the fund is administered, please contact the Publications Team.

For the year 2025/2026, currently £4,771.17 remains unallocated.

Eligibility criteria

Given the size of the fund, we cannot guarantee that it will be available for all researchers who might want to use it. In general, the IOAF will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis for articles that meet the following criteria:

  • The corresponding author must be affiliated with RGU - At the point when the article is submitted to the journal, the corresponding author must be actively affiliated with RGU as either a member of staff or a research student (i.e. a student studying for a research-level masters degree or any doctoral degree). The corresponding author's affiliation(s) on the published article must include RGU.
  • The corresponding author and the person requesting use of the fund must not already have any unresolved allocations from the fund - Any existing allocations associated with these people must either have been invoiced by the publisher, or else the Publications Teams must have been notified that the article in question has been rejected by the journal.
  • The article must be an original research article or a review article (e.g. systematic reviews) - The IOAF is intended for research articles, or the appropriate equivalent as per the article types used in the journal. Editorials, book reviews and other forms of journal content will not usually be considered eligible.
  • The journal must meet generally-recognised standards of legitimacy and quality - For example, it must not be a predatory journal and it must undertake peer review on article submissions.
  • The journal must be fully OA - The fund cannot be used to support publishing in hybrid journals (i.e. where the author chooses whether to publish OA or pay-to-read).
  • It should be possible to publish the article under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 licence (CC BY) - This licence will normally be required for articles when the APC is paid through this fund.
  • The requested costs must be exclusively for OA fees - The fund cannot be used to cover other publisher fees (e.g. "article development charges" / charges for Green Open Access, page charges, colour charges, etc.).
  • There must be no alternative source of OA funding that is able to fully cover the costs involved - Where an alternative source of OA funding is able to partially cover the costs (e.g. one of the Library's offset or "Read and Publish" deals), that source of funding must be used in conjunction with the IOAF.
  • The total cost required (i.e. including any tax) from the IOAF must not exceed £3,500 - This will help to ensure that the fund is used as equitably as possible.
  • There must be sufficient money left in the IOAF - This means currently unallocated funds that are sufficient to cover the total cost required.
  • The corresponding author must not have committed us to payment before requesting use of the IOAF - The request for funds must be received and approved by the Library before the authors have signed any agreement with the publisher that commits RGU to payment.

How to apply

All requests to use the IOAF should be sent to the Publications Team. To help us process your request, you must provide the following details:

  • The working title for the article.
  • A list of all authors and their affiliations, including an indication of which is the corresponding author.
  • The title of the journal and a link to the journal website.
  • The article type, using the relevant term from the list of types on the journal website.
  • A list of any funders acknowledged in the article.

If the Library ask for any further information to help make a decision, the requestor must provide this information as soon as possible.

If money is allocated for the article, the requestor must keep the Publications Team updated on the article's progress through the journal's editorial workflow.