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 provides financial support for Open Access publishing in cases where the funder does not accept publishing fees as eligible costs of the project. The costs of Open Access publishing must be included already in the funding application and the project’s budget must be used to cover these costs whenever the funder permits this. The units are responsible for the payment of the financial support in accordance with the faculty’s practices. (Rector’s decision no. 13/2021, UEF dno. 247/02.02/2021)
Please check your faculty’s APC practices from your unit.
Moreover, even if the above-mentioned prerequisites are not met, there are various APC benefits available from publishers.
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 portal).
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 1.12.2020–3.12.2021
- 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 2021-2023 (article is accepted between 1.1.2021-31.12.2023
- articles can be published open access for free, i.e. without the APC
- for peer-reviewed journal articles only
- using an institutional email address is recommended when submitting an article
- there is a limited amount of open access articles included into the license agreement. If all of them have been published under agreement by the time your article is accepted, you will automatically have the right to publish your article open access yourself through ACS's other options (in that case you have to pay the APC yourself).
- agreement includes both hybrid journals and OA journals
NB! Alterations to the lists are possible during the agreement period. - detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article
- licensing agreement is valid in 2021 (article is accepted between 1.1.-31.12.2021)
- agreement includes hybrid journals
- articles are published using CC BY license
- articles are published open access for free automatically (an institutional email address must be used in the submitting process)
- there is a limited amount of open access articles included into the license agreement (when the limit has been reached, authors can either finance the open access publication themselves or publish the article behind a paywall)
- list of hybrid journals applicable for publishing without an APC fee
- the assumption is that you want to publish the article open access. If that is not the case, please complete the publication process and then contact the library where the open access publishing process will be stopped.
- licensing agreement valid 2021-2023 (article is accepted between 1.1.2021-31.12.2023)
- articles can be published open access free of charge
- includes hybrid journals
- free of charge OA publishing is applied for when the article has been approved for publishing
- detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article
- list of hybrid journals included in the agreement
- licensing agreement valid 2021-2023 (article is accepted between 1.1.2021-31.12.2022)
- 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.
- includes hybrid journals and two OA journals (International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management + Mental Illness)
- detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article
- list of voucher-applicable hybrid journals
- licensing agreement valid 2021-2023 (article is accepted between 1.1.2021-31.12.2023)
- article can be published open access without article processing charge (APC)
- agreement covers IEEE’s hybrid journals and Full OA journals (list of journals)
- article must be peer-reviewed
- use an institutional email address in the submitting process
- there is a limited amount of free open access articles but they are estimated to cover publications for the contract period
- 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 2021-2023 (article has been received into production during 1.1.2021-31.12.2023)
- articles can be published open access free of charge
- for peer-reviewed articles only
- includes hybrid journals (list of journals)
- use an institutional email address in the submitting process
- detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article (on FinELib pages)
- detailed instructions on how to publish an open access article (on OUP pages)
- 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 1.1.2021-31.12.2023 (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)
- In 2021, approximately 75-80 % of articles can be published open access without additional cost.
- 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, i.e. without the APC
- when submitting your manuscript, select your institution name and insert your institutional email address in the system (if it's not already there)
- 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. If all of them have been published under agreement by the time your article is accepted, you will need to cover the costs of open access publishing 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 journals included in the agreement (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.
