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 a submission charge (to cover the cost of peer review), or production charges (such as excess pages or colour figures). These are unconnected to the open access status of the article.
- Through Jisc, UK university libraries have reached transitional agreements (TAs) with some publishers, to repurpose former subscription fees as APC waivers, enabling free open access publishing in their 'hybrid' (partly-paywalled) journals.
- 'Fully gold' open access journals are typically (although not always) excluded from TAs, because their business model has never depended on subscriptions.
- Publishers who don't offer a TA may allow institutions to set up a prepayment account to pay APCs as they are incurred, although these are less common than they were.
- 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.
- Many journals still operate on a 'hybrid' basis: authors who are unable to benefit from an institutional agreement or pay the APC from their own research budget can publish for free, but their article will be paywalled (access for subscribers only).
- The vast majority of scholarly publishers permit authors of paywalled papers to self-archive their 'accepted manuscript' in an institutional or subject-based repository: 'green' open access. This enables the author to comply with REF or research funder criteria for open access, providing specific conditions are met.
A new tool for UK authors, to quickly check whether a specific journal is included in one of your institution's agreements.
- Search for any journal by title or ISSN. Navigate to the entry for the journal concerned.
- Choose the Transitional Agreement Look-up tab. Select your institution University of Hull.
- Check agreement. If a Transitional Agreement is in place, you can publish your paper with Open Access. without incurring an article processing charge.
NB. The University of Hull's support for open access publishing with SAGE and PLOS is not a 'transitional agreement', and not covered by the Jisc Open Policy Finder. More information in the publishers' index below.
If your target journal is not covered by a transitional agreement, your research funder may provide support for costs associated with open access publishing.
Publisher-Specific Agreements for University of Hull Authors
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.
The three-year Jisc-mediated open access agreement between UKHEIs and the American Chemical Society is due to expire 31 Dec 2024, and terms for 2025- have not yet been agreed.
University of Hull authors are advised not to submit to any ACS fully open access journal until further notice, unless you have a project or school account which can be used to pay the article processing charge.
Please contact the Library at your first opportunity if you currently have a paper in review for an ACS fully open access journal.
Authors with a paper under review for an ACS hybrid (partly paywalled) journal should ensure they have the latest information about the status of the agreement before deciding whether to select the open access route. More information about the workflow here.
The University of Hull is a participant in the American Institute of Physics current Read & 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.
Under the terms of BMJ's Open Access Agreement with the UK Jisc Consortium, 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 BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care, 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, scroll down to Find out if you are entitled to institutional funding, 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 this agreement.
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.
University of Hull is a participant in the Elsevier-UK Institutions agreement mediated by Jisc.
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.
Some of the professional and scholarly society journals published by Elsevier are excluded from this agreement, as the society's financial position is dependent on subscriber/author income. Check the list of participating journals before you choose the open access route when publishing in a society title.
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.
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.
The University Library has opened a PeerJ prepayment account to support Lifetime Basic Individual Membership for Hull authors, allowing the publication of one article per year without article processing charges. All authors must be members in order to benefit.
Funding for individual memberships is available on a first-come, first served basis. Create an account with your University of Hull email address when you submit your article.
PeerJ also offers the 'article processing charge' payment model: a one-off charge per paper, regardless of the number of authors. If you have your research funder's financial support for open access publishing, please select the APC payment option instead of individual membership.
June 2024: University of Hull's Open Access Prepayment Account with SAGE is fully committed. Ensure you have a means of payment for the article processing charge before submitting to a SAGE Gold Open Access Journal, or selecting the open access publishing route in a SAGE Choice hybrid journal.
SAGE authors who do not have the means to pay an article processing charge for 'gold' open access in a hybrid journal retain the right to self-archive their Accepted Manuscript in their institutional repository (Worktribe for Hull authors) immediately after acceptance, compliant with REF and research funders' open access policies.
A small number of SAGE titles published in partnership with scholarly/professional societies are excluded from the Open Access Publishing Account.
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' titles:
- Springer Open Choice hybrid journals (download the full list here)
- Palgrave hybrid journals
- Nature, and other Nature Research hybrid journals (subject to a national cap, based on historical publishing trends)
- Other academic journals on Nature.com which are currently transforming to Open Access.
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.
- Nature Portfolio fully open access journals Nature Communications, Scientific Data, and Scientific Reports. A 15% discount on the article processing charge is offered to Hull corresponding authors.
- The fully open access Nature Partner Journals (npj).
- 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, capped at 7,700 articles per year across the whole sector.
Research articles with a Hull corresponding author are eligible for free open access publishing in any of the journals below, with a Creative Commons licence of your choice. On submission, select the University of Hull Open Access Agreement - when your article is accepted, Library staff will be contacted to confirm your status as an employee or student of the institution.
- 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.
Discontinued Agreements
August 2024: University of Hull is no longer participating in APA's Open Access Agreement with Jisc institutions, as the cost is not justified by the number of articles which have benefitted.
Hull authors who publish in APA's 'hybrid' (subscription-based) journals should not choose open access unless they have a means of paying the article processing charge (currently $3000 +VAT). Instead, you should take advantage of APA's self-archiving policy, which permits authors to share their accepted manuscript via their institutional repository with no embargo.
Authors who submit to the fully open access title Technology, Mind and Behaviour should consider applying for a waiver if they have no funder or faculty account which can be used to pay the article processing charge.
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 or school account. 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.
Dec 2024: The University of Hull will not renew the Jisc-mediated Flat Fee Agreement for open access publishing with PLOS for 2025, as the annual fee has increased by over 200% whilst publication rates have fallen.
Any paper with an eligible author submitted before 1 Jan 2025 to an eligible journal will be covered by the 2024 agreement. After this date, the author will be responsible for payment of the APC invoice. Do not submit a paper to PLOS until you have established whether your faculty or funder can provide financial support.
Titles in scope of the agreement are PLOS ONE (all subject areas), PLOS Genetics, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS Digital Health, and PLOS Complex Systems.
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.
University of Hull will not be renewing our Read and Publish agreement with the Royal Society of Chemistry, after the current agreement expires on 31 Dec 2024.
University of Hull authors should not submit a paper to an RSC 'Gold' open access journal unless they have a research funder's support for open access publishing, or a project or school account which can be used to pay the article processing charge.
Authors who submit to an RSC hybrid journal (partly paywalled) should ensure they choose the 'green open access' route, to avoid incurring an article processing charge. Overview of the terms and conditions for green OA here.
Since 2015, the RSC's multidisciplinary journal Chemical Science has operated a 'diamond' open access model: free-to-read and free to publish in.
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
