Navigating open access article processing charges: A guide for researchers

Author: Jovial Toh

Publishing your work open access (OA) enhances its visibility and reach, but funding OA publishing can be challenging. Learn about article processing charges for publishing OA and how OA agreements help researchers like you publish OA with financial support from your institution. You can easily identify whether you are eligible for financial support to publish your work OA under a Springer Nature OA agreement. Find out how.  

Publishing your research OA has many benefits. When you publish OA, you increase your work’s visibility and impact, which can be instrumental in advancing your career. You also enable faster knowledge transfer and support a more equitable scientific ecosystem, in which research is available for all to read and use. 

An important thing to consider when publishing OA is the cost associated with it. Understanding how OA publishing works and whether you are eligible to financial support is key to getting your work published openly.  

Funding OA: Understanding article processing charges

When an article is published closed access (not OA), the cost of publishing it is covered by the paywall to subscription content (if your article is not published OA, only readers who are subscribed to the journal can access it). When you publish OA, article processing charges (APCs) cover the costs of publishing, and your article is made freely available to anyone, anywhere. Costs of publishing include peer review administration, copy editing, and hosting the final article on dedicated servers.

There are various options available to help researchers fund these costs. Some institutions or research libraries offer financial support through dedicated funds to cover APCs for their researchers. Research grants may include a component that covers the publishing of research outputs OA. One way of financing your APC, which is becoming substantial thanks to widespread adoption, is through OA agreements with publishers.  

Funding Your APCs through an OA agreement

OA agreements are established between academic publishers and institutions with the aim of making OA publishing accessible and easier. These agreements are often negotiated collectively by groups of institutions, such as consortia, or coordinated at the national level, allowing more researchers in the country to benefit from OA publishing.  

Springer Nature OA agreements support researchers from over 3,700 institutions worldwide, enabling affiliated researchers to publish their work OA. If you are an author affiliated with a participating institution, publishing your article through an OA agreement is the easiest route to OA.  

OA agreements can provide full coverage of APC, partial discounts, or fixed price contributions towards APCs: 

• Full APC coverage: The institution covers 100% of the APC. 
• Percentage discount: For example, a 10% reduction on the list price APC. 
• Fixed price coverage: The institution pays up to a specified amount, such as €1,000. 

How can you find out whether your APC can be covered under a Springer Nature OA agreement? 

Whether you are exploring various publication outputs to find the right journal for your next publication or you’re already checking out the journal you plan to submit to, it is now easier than ever to find out whether you are eligible for financial support to publish your work OA.  

Get information on APC coverage directly in your Journal Finder search results

With Springer Nature’s Journal Finder you can get targeted journal recommendations based on keywords, article titles, or abstracts. This tool saves you time and guesswork, and you can quickly get a list of thematically relevant journals, along with key journal information such as scope, article types accepted, and metrics.  

Recently, an important additional piece of information is included: APC coverage. For each result in your Journal Finder search, you’ll see whether you can publish with funding support and if so, the amount of APC funding available. 

Eligibility checker: Get OA funding information, directly on the journal’s webpage 

When you’re browsing a journal’s webpage for information on its aims and scope or submission guidelines, Springer Nature’s eligibility checker will display your eligibility for OA publishing funding in that journal.  

Based on your institutional affiliation, the eligibility checker will inform you of APC coverage through the relevant OA agreement for the specific journal you are browsing.  

“We launched the first version of Journal Finder late last year to help researchers like you identify the most suitable journals for your work. Since then, it has quickly become a trusted tool. Earlier this year, we introduced APC funding information on individual journal pages tailored to location. Now, we’re excited to bring this functionality into Journal Finder itself, to help you understand your options before submitting.” 

— Maithili Pai, Group Product Manager at Springer Nature 

New OA agreement country pages: Find out about agreements relevant to you

If you’d like to know whether and which OA agreements exist for your country, you can now browse through Springer Nature’s OA agreement pages to find out. These pages are designed to centralise institutional funding available in the country, organised by institution, making it easier for researchers to identify financial support available to them. 

Visit the OA agreements page and select your region and country to discover relevant agreements. You will find a full list of institutions that offer OA publishing coverage under various agreements, along with details on upcoming author webinars tailored to support you with publishing.  

Whichever way you find and choose your next Springer Nature publication, you can easily and clearly learn about your OA funding options. With your APC covered, you can publish OA and give your work the visibility and reach it deserves to make an impact.  

Learn more about OA publishing, APCs, and valuable resources to navigate your OA publishing journey on Springer Nature's comprehensive guide on APCs.