Scientific journals usually charge an Article/Author Processing Charge (APC) or a Book Processing Charge (BPC) from the author of an article/book to cover the costs of open publishing.
UEF has outlined that the costs of publishing must always be included in the project’s funding applications. If the APC fees have not been approved as costs in the funding of the project, it is under certain prerequisites possible to pay the APC from the UEF’s funds.
There are also other APC benefits available for UEF authors, regardless of the funding. These benefits vary depending on the publisher. In most cases, the benefit is either a discount on the APC or a possibility to publish an article without the APC when it is published open access in a scientific journal.
UEF also supports open publishing via different Open Access Programs.
Paying the APC from UEF's funds
UEF supports open publishing by paying APCs i.e., Article/Author Processing Charges of articles from university’s funds. By paying the APC fees it is possible to publish an article open access. For the present, the support is applicable to APC fees paid in 2020.
Prerequisites for APC fees payable from UEF’s funds
Despite applying, the funder has not approved open publishing as a part of the project’s costs. The publication expenses must always be included in the funding applications.
Article must be published in an open access journal (so-called Golden OA). The support is not applicable to articles that are published open access in subscription-based journals (so-called hybrid journals). Furthermore, other possible costs related to the publishing of an article will not be paid from university’s funds.
Journal must have a sufficient JUFO rating on Publication Forum. The sufficient JUFO ratings defined by the faculties:
- Philosophical Faculty 1-3,
- Faculty of Science and Forestry 2-3,
- Faculty of Health Sciences 2-3 and
- Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies 1-3.
Moreover, even if the above-mentioned prerequisites are not met, there are other APC benefits available.
APC benefits from publishers
FinELib consortium negotiates e-resource license agreements for Finnish scientific communities. Some of these license agreements contain an Open Access element, i.e. an APC benefit for the duration of the agreement. In most cases, this means either a discount on the APC or a possibility to publish an article without the APC when it is published open access in a scientific journal. Depending on the publisher, the included journals are hybrid and/or gold OA journals. Each publisher has predefined the journals that contain the APC benefit, the extent of the benefits and how they are calculated varies. In addition, the process of applying for the APC benefit varies with different publishers.
Additionally, we are participating in the Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) that enables an MDPI article processing charge discount.
At the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital, the corresponding authors are entitled for the APC benefit. If the APC fees have not been approved as costs in the funding of the project, it is under certain prerequisites possible to pay the APC from UEF’s funds.
A preliminary list of Publication Forum ratings for journals with APC benefits (if a journal is not shown on the list, check their rating at the Publication Forum).
At the moment, we have APC benefits included in the licensing agreements with the following publishers:
- for an OA journal Science Advances published by Association for the Advancement of Science
- articles accepted between 13.12.2019 – 4.12.2020
- 15 per cent discount on APC list price
- the discounted APC rate is applied for when the article has been approved for publishing
- detailed instructions on how to get the discount
- licensing agreement valid 2018-2020 (article is accepted between 1.1.2018-31.12.2020)
- articles can be published open access for free using granted open access credits (an institutional email address must be used in the submitting process)
- there is a limited amount of free credits annually, and if all credits have been used by the time your article is accepted, ACS directs you to publish your article as a paywalled article or to pay the Article Processing Charges yourself.
- includes hybrid journals and two OA journals (ACS Central Science and ACS Omega)
- detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article
- list of credit-applicable hybrid journals
- licensing agreement valid 2018-2020 (article is accepted between 1.1.2018-31.12.2020)
- 50 per cent discount on APC list prices (the APC rate varies between journals)
- includes both hybrid and OA journals
- the discounted APC rate is applied for when the article has been approved for publishing
- detailed instructions on how to get the discount
- list of journals with a discounted APC rate
- APC price list of journals (undiscounted rates)
- licensing agreement valid 2018-2020 (article is accepted between 1.1.2018-31.12.2020)
- articles can be published with a free open access using vouchers
- vouchers can be applied for when submitting the manuscript, and an institutional email address must be used in the submitting process
- there is a limited amount of free vouchers annually, and if all free vouchers have been used by the time your article is accepted, you have the right to direct the publisher to publish you article as a paywalled article. NB! All OA vouchers for the year 2020 have already been used up!
- includes hybrid journals and one OA journal
- detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article
- list of voucher-applicable journals
- for IEEE's fully open access journals
- articles accepted between 20.1.2020–31.12.2020
- articles can be published open access for free using granted open access credits (an institutional email address must be used in the submitting process)
- there is a limited amount of free credits, and if all free credits have been used up, you will need to cover the costs of open access publishing yourself. NB! All OA credits have already been used up!
- detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article
- 10 per cent discount on APC list prices (the APC rate varies between journals)
- all included journals are OA journals
- the discounted APC rate is applied for when submitting the manuscript for the publisher in the Submission System, and this demands using either a UEF or a KUH e-mail address
- Article Processing Charges for journals (undiscounted rates)
- licensing agreement valid 2020-2021 (article is accepted between 1.1.2020 – 31.12.2021)
- articles are published open access for free, i.e. without the APC
- those entitled to the discount are identified by the institutional (university’s or hospital’s) email address so it must be used in the submitting process
- detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article
- list of journals included in the agreement
- licensing agreement valid 2020-2022 (article is accepted between 1.1.2020 - 31.12.2022)
- article can be published for free of charge in SAGE’s hybrid journals
- article can be published with a 20% discount on APCs in SAGE’s Gold OA journals
- the APC benefit is applied for when the article has been approved for publishing
- instructions on how to to get the discount
- list of hybrid journals applicable for publishing without an APC fee
- list of Gold OA journals with a discounted APC rate
- licensing agreement valid 1.10.2018-31.12.2020 (article is accepted during the agreement term).
- articles are published open access for free, i.e. without the APC
- once your article has been accepted for publication, you will receive a link to Springer’s My Publication system where you choose the UEF affiliation.
- includes only hybrid journals
- detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article
- list of hybrid journals included in the agreement
- the assumption is that you want to publish the article open access. If that is not the case, please complete the My Publication process and then contact the library where the open access publishing process will be stopped.
- licensing agreement valid 2020-2022 (article is accepted between 3.6.2020-31.12.2022)
- articles can be published open access free of charge
- includes Open Select standard rate journals (hybrid journals) and the OA journal Annals of Medicine
- list of hybrid journals applicable for publishing without an APC fee (list is updating, you can check the up-to-date situation from the publisher’s APC Finder: if a journal’s Open Select is Yes and its List Price is €2,495, it is included in the agreement)
- free of charge OA publishing is applied for when the article has been approved for publishing
- there is a limited amount of open access articles included into the license agreement annually (when the limit has been reached, authors can either finance the open access publication themselves or publish the article behind a paywall)
- detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article
- licensing agreement valid 2020-2022 (article is accepted between 17.2.2020–31.12.2022)
- articles are published open access for free, i.e. without the APC; the type of your article either primary research article or review article
- agreement covers Wiley’s Full OA journals (list of journals) and hybrid journals (list of journals)
- OA benefit is applied when submitting the manuscript (Full OA journals) or when the article has been approved for publishing (hybrid journals)
- NB! In 2020, only about half of the articles can be published open access for free. NB! All the free articles for the year 2020 have already been used up!
- detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article (on FinELib pages)
- detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article (on Wiley pages)
- licensing agreement valid 2018-2022 (article is accepted between 1.5.2018-31.12.2022)
- articles can be published open access for free using an organisational OA waiver code; you can request the code from: acquisitions@uef.fi
- you can use the code for opening your article after the publisher has accepted your manuscript for publication
- there is a limited amount of free vouchers annually, the number decreases each time the waiver code is used. If all free vouchers have already been used, you can publish your article as a paywalled article or pay the APC fee yourself
- includes both hybrid and OA journals
- detailed instructions for publishing an open access article can be found on FinELib consortium pages and on the pages of Wolters Kluwer
- list of code-applicable journals (all article types)
UEF memberships in OA publishing programs
University of Eastern Finland wants to promote open publishing, and supports several models and initiatives. Work is coordinated by library.
DOAJ is a comprehensive directory of international open access scientific journals available online. UEF is funding the service through the FinELib consortium.
Knowledge Unlatched (KU) is a project that publishes open access books with the help of funds from the library consortium. KU does not charge article processing charges.
UEF supports the publication of the Language Science Press book collection within the KU consortium. In 2021–2023, the Language Science Press will publish 30 open access books each year.
UEF is part of the OA publisher MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) membership programme. The membership grants researchers from the University of Eastern Finland a 10% discount on APC fees.
Open Book Publishers (OBP) is an independent academic publisher. Members of our university community are granted the following benefits, among others:
- discounts on printed books
- customised editions
- free-of-charge use of all e-versions of the books
- book downloads without being prompted to donate
Open Library of Humanities (OLH) is a non-profit academic publisher publishing OA journals. OLH does not charge any article processing charges, but publishing is funded through consortium membership fees.
Sherpa / Romeo service contains publishers’ OA policies by journal (what may be recorded in publication archives, what are the authors’ rights). UEF is funding the service through the FinELib consortium.
SPARC Europe is an alliance of European research institutions and libraries. It aims at promoting competition in the publishing industry and encouraging the emergence of new cost models (e.g. Open Access). UEF is funding the service through the FinELib consortium.
For more information
Questions related to APC fees and benefits: please contact apcfees@uef.fi.
Questions related to invoices and payments: please contact the faculty’s financial services or the financial secretaries of the department/unit.
