On this page:
“Transitional agreements are intended to ensure that the financial impact to UKHE of a transition to full and immediate open access will be minimal.”
Publishers' OA Agreements: Understanding the Terminology
- Many scholarly publishers are in the process of transforming their business model for journals from 'pay-to-read' to 'pay-to-publish'.
- These publishers typically invoice the author for an article processing charge (APC) when a paper is accepted, to compensate for the projected loss of subscriber income when a paper is published with 'gold' open access.
- Some publishers also impose additional charges for production, such as colour figures. These are unconnected to the open access status of the article.
- Through Jisc, UK university libraries have reached transitional agreements with some publishers, to repurpose former subscription fees as APC waivers.
- Other publishers allow institutions to set up a prepayment account to pay APCs as they are incurred.
- Many journals still operate on a 'hybrid' basis: authors who are unable to pay an APC or benefit from a waiver can publish for free, but their article will be paywalled (access for subscribers only). These authors retain the right to self-archive their 'accepted manuscript' in an institutional or subject-based repository: 'green' open access.
- Some open access publishers who have never relied on subscription income offer an 'institutional membership' model, whereby a financial commitment to contribute to the journal's running costs guarantees authors free or discounted publishing.
Publisher-Specific Agreements for University of Hull Authors
If your target publisher is not listed below, or your target journal is excluded from the Library's agreement with the publisher concerned, your research funder may provide support for costs associated with open access publishing.
For University of Hull authors with no other means of payment for open access fees, a pilot Open Access Support Fund has been launched for 2023-24, exclusively for articles in 'fully gold' open access journals. Further information and eligibility criteria.
New for 2023: University of Hull has joined the Jisc-mediated ACM OPEN agreement. Hull corresponding authors (identified by their email address) will be automatically granted free open access publishing in all ACM journals, whether 'fully gold' or 'hybrid', with a CC-BY licence by default.
More information about the ACM approach to Open Access publishing.
University of Hull has joined a three-year Jisc-mediated open access agreement between UKHEIs and the American Chemical Society, enabling our authors to publish without paying an article processing charge in all ACS journals, whether fully OA or hybrid (partly paywalled). Four journals published in partnership with Chinese universities are excluded (see Other Fully OA journals).
Only the corresponding author is eligible. When submitting your paper, confirm your institutional affiliation, so that when your paper is accepted, you receive an invitation to publish OA with a CC-BY licence, without incurring a charge. More information about the workflow here.
The University of Hull is a participant in the American Institute of Physics' 2021-23 'Read and Publish' agreement with UKHEIs. Our authors can publish open access research articles in AIP 'hybrid' (subscription) journals free of charge, until a national cap is reached.
Only the Corresponding Author is eligible. Choose the 'Author Select' submission pathway, and identify your institutional affiliation.
Note that some AIP journals (for instance, JASA) charge a page fee for open access papers with excess pages, and this fee is the responsibility of the author where incurred.
Other scientific societies' journals published under the AIP banner are excluded from this agreement, as are Physics Today and the AIP's six fully open access journals
UKHEIs have renewed their pilot agreement with the American Psychological Association for APC waivers, capped for 2023-24 at 1.5x the total number of APA articles published by UK authors in 2021-22. Until the cap is reached, all articles with a Hull corresponding author will automatically be offered open access with a CC-BY licence, and also deposited in PubMed Central.
When submitting your paper through APA's Editorial Manager, your eligibility for Open Access is identified from your institutional affiliation. When the paper is accepted, you will be asked to confirm your licence choice. Any charges incurred for colour figures are the responsibility of the author.
All APA journals are covered by the agreement, plus Hofgrefe 'hybrid' (partly-paywalled) titles.
The three Hofgrefe fully open access titles are excluded, although eligible authors receive a 25% discount on the APC.
Any paper with a Hull corresponding author which acknowledges funding from the UK Research Councils or a participating charitable funder is eligible for Open Access in 34 'hybrid' journals in the BMJ Group. Funders include Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation, Blood Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK, Parkinsons UK or Versus Arthritis.
Journals covered by the agreement include British Journal of Sports Medicine, Evidence-Based Nursing, Heart, Injury Prevention, and Thorax. For the full details of funders and journals covered by the agreement, start from the Information for Authors and select Institution = University of Hull.
Eligible papers accepted for these titles will be published with a CC-BY licence immediately, until a national cap is reached, at no cost to the author or their institution.
The BMJ itself, and other fully open access journals from this publisher, are excluded from the pilot, as are journals currently transforming to full open access such as BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care.
Hull authors who are not eligible for the pilot can take advantage of the BMJ self-archiving policy for ‘non-open access’ articles: deposit your 'accepted manuscript' in Worktribe immediately, so that it can be made open without embargo in Repository@Hull, with a CC-BY-NC licence.
April 2022: University of Hull is a participant in the Elsevier-UK Institutions agreement mediated by Jisc, backdated to 1 Jan 2022.
Hull corresponding authors can publish unlimited open access research papers in over 2000 participating 'hybrid' journals (part-paywalled). Hybrid titles published under the Cell Press and Lancet imprints are covered by this agreement (although review papers n these titles are excluded). Based on your University of Hull affiliation, your paper will be automatically selected for open access.
Although Elsevier's 1000+ 'fully gold' open access journals are excluded from this agreement, participating institutions receive a 15% discount on the article processing charge (also backdated to 1 Jan 2022).
Aug 2022: The University's prepayment account with Frontiers is now closed, as it has not been possible to identify a central source of funding to maintain this service.
Before submitting a paper to a Frontiers title, ensure that you can cover the article processing charge from a project account or by another means. If you are unable to benefit from a research funder's support for open access publishing, you may be eligible for Frontiers' own fee discount scheme.
University of Hull corresponding authors can publish an unlimited number of open access papers without paying an article processing charge in the Institute of Physics' 13 'fully gold' open access titles, as well as 42 'hybrid' journals and 12 society journals published under the IoP banner. Papers published under the terms of the agreement are assigned a CC-BY licence.
See Eligible Journals Lists A-D for the full catalogue of titles covered by the agreement, or check the terms for any specific title.
American Astronomical Society titles, and a few other scholarly society journals published under the IoP banner are excluded from the agreement.
Be aware that any additional charges such as page fees and colour figures are not covered by this agreement.
This publisher determines eligibility for the APC waiver based on the article's date of acceptance, not submission. If you are not confident that a final decision on your paper will be made before the expiry of the current agreement on 31 Dec 2025, ensure that you have your own means of payment for any open access charges incurred, or that your journal offers a route to publication which does not incur a charge.
University of Hull is a participant in the MDPI Institutional Open Access Program, which entitles our authors to a 20% discount on the standard processing charge for articles and books (whether or not they are the corresponding author).
Payment of the invoice is the responsibility of the author(s).
April 2024: University of Hull has joined the Read and Publish agreement with OUP, mediated by Jisc for UK institutions.
All research articles and case reports with a Hull corresponding author will automatically be offered free open access publishing in over 350 'hybrid' (partly-paywalled) OUP journals, plus 127 'fully gold' Open Access journals. Download the spreadsheet of titles covered here.
A CC-BY licence is offered by default; authors can choose a different Creative Commons licence if preferred. A guide to the author workflow in OUP's SciPris article submission system.
Any scholarly society titles joining OUP in 2025 may not be included in this agreement. Check the guidance for authors for the journal concerned.
PeerJ publishes 7 peer-reviewed STEM journals. Our mission is to efficiently publish the world's knowledge. We do this through Internet-scale innovation and Open Access licensing.
As a pilot, the University Library has opened a PeerJ account and deposited £2500 to support open access publishing by Hull authors in all PeerJ titles. These funds are available on a first-come, first served basis and can be claimed at the point your article is accepted. Create an account with your University of Hull email address in order to submit.
If you have another source of funding to cover open access charges (for instance, your research funder or a faculty account), please don't draw on the Library account unnecessarily.
PLOS is a nonprofit, Open Access publisher empowering researchers to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication.
University of Hull authors can publish unlimited papers free of charge in PLOS ONE (all subject areas), and six other discipline-specific titles: PLOS Genetics, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS Digital Health, and PLOS Complex Systems . The article processing charge will be waived for any eligible paper submitted ahead of 1 Jan 2025.
Only the Corresponding Author is eligible. When you submit your paper, choose the "Institutional Account" payment option, then select 'University of Hull' from the drop-down list. You must also ensure that you select the institution 'University of Hull' when you complete the Author Contact Details form.
Explore your publishing options with PLOS.
Effective for new submissions from 1 Jan 2024, the following titles are no longer included in the agreement for University of Hull authors: PLOS Biology, PLOS Climate, PLOS Global Public Health, PLOS Medicine, PLOS Mental Health, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, and PLOS Water.
30 July 2020: University of Hull is no longer a member of the Royal Society's Open Access programme.
Authors who submit a paper to Royal Society Open Science or Open Biology must ensure they have funds available to pay the full article processing charge on acceptance.
Authors who have no other source of funding for APCs are invited to apply for a discretionary waiver.
Feb 2023: a new scheme has been launched to enable Open Biology reviewers to earn credits which can be redeemed against article processing charges for their own papers in this journal.
April 2022: University of Hull has signed a new three-year 'Read and Publish' agreement with the Royal Society of Chemistry, which enables our authors to publish open access papers free of charge in RSC 'hybrid' (part-paywalled) journals, until a national cap is reached.
Only the corresponding author is eligible. The author's email address and institutional affiliation are used to automatically direct papers down the open access publishing channel. Authors will be offered a choice of Creative Commons licence when the paper is accepted. Overview of the workflow here.
RSC's 'full gold' open access journals are excluded from the 'Read and Publish' agreement - however, Hull authors receive a 15% discount on the article processing charge. Chemical Science is both free-to-read and free-to-publish (known as 'diamond' open access).
June 2023: University of Hull's prepayment account with SAGE is close to fully committed. If you don't have your own source of funding to pay any article processing charge incurred, please contact the Library to establish the latest financial position before submitting to a SAGE open access title.
All SAGE authors retain the right to publish their Accepted Manuscript in their institutional repository (Worktribe for Hull authors) immediately after acceptance, i.e. 'green' open access with no embargo.
The Library has opened a prepaid account to cover SAGE open access charges for papers with a Hull corresponding author, while funds are available.
This account can be used to pay the article processing charge for any of SAGE's Pure Gold Open Access journals, or to take up the SAGE Choice option to publish an open access article in a subscription journal. A small number of SAGE titles published in partnership with scholarly/professional societies are excluded from the offer.
UK universities including Hull have collectively renewed their 'Read and Publish' agreement with SpringerNature, which covers author fees for open access publishing, plus subscriptions to paywalled content, in a single institutional payment. Hull corresponding authors can publish open access free of charge in over 2000 'hybrid' (part-paywalled) titles:
- Springer hybrid journals, including Open Choice
- Palgrave hybrid journals
- Nature, and other Nature Research titles
- Other academic journals on Nature.com, including Nature Partner Journals (npj).
Based on the corresponding author's affiliation (verified by their employer), eligible articles are automatically directed down the open access route once accepted, with a Creative Commons licence (normally CC-BY).
Journals which are excluded from the UK SpringerNature Read & Publish agreement:
- The SpringerOpen and BioMedCentral (BMC) collections of open access titles owned by SpringerNature. Hull corresponding authors can benefit from a 15% discount on the article processing charge for any of these titles.
- The new Springer Discover series of rapid review journals
- Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, and any other fully open access journals launched by Palgrave in the period covered by the agreement
- Scientific American (now owned by SpringerNature)
University of Hull is a participant in the latest Taylor and Francis UK Open Access Agreement, until 31 Dec 2025.
Under the terms of the new agreement, research articles with a Hull corresponding author are eligible for free open access publishing on any of the following platforms, with a Creative Commons licence of your choice, until a national annual cap is reached:
- Over 300 Taylor and Francis fully open access journals
- Taylor and Francis Open Select (hybrid) journals
- The Routledge Open Research platform for humanities and social sciences
- All submission types on the F1000 open peer review platform.
Search for any journal title on the Taylor & Francis Open Access Cost Finder to confirm its inclusion in the UK agreement.
Note that Dove Press scientific and medical journals are excluded, although this publisher is now owned by Taylor and Francis Group.
Who Can Help?
Staff who administer the Library's Periodicals collection can advise on the terms of the University's OA publishing agreements and the availability of financial support from research funders: periodicals@hull.ac.uk
Library staff responsible for collection management in Repository@Hull (Worktribe) can assist with record editing and file deposit: repository@hull.ac.uk
