What is Gold Open Access?

Gold Open Access usually refers to immediate, permanent access to a publication through a publisher’s online presence, with a licence for reuse. Often publishers will apply an article processing charge to pay for the publication.

What is an Article Processing Charge (APC)?

An article processing charge is the fee that publishers of some open access journals charge in order to publish articles. APCs are usually paid by the author, their institutions or funding bodies that fund the author(s) work.

The University of Wolverhampton has a small central fund for article processing charges for research funded by UKRI member councils or the Wellcome Trust, but in other cases the cost of APCs must currently be borne by the author or their funders, or through publisher read and publish deals. APCs vary considerably-from less than £100 to over £3000. For this reason it is important that authors make use of the opportunity to deposit their research output in WIRE, the institutional repository, which is free to use.

Gold Open Access Deals

To help authors find more routes to open access, University of Wolverhampton takes part in transformative read and publish deals with the following publishers, allowing authors to publish articles via gold open access routes.

Read and Publish deals work on the principle that the subscription fees paid by the library to access journals are also used to pay article processing charges. They can be available for both fully open access journals, and hybrid journals which offer a mixture of subscription and open access content. The publisher will assign a certain amount of money from the subscription to offset the publishing costs, which means that funds can be limited if interest is high. In some cases, this may lead to the publisher applying restrictions to who can access the funds. We will keep information up to date, so please check back when you are preparing to submit an article to check that you can still access the deals. If you have any queries regarding these deals, please contact the Scholarly Communications Team.

Read and Publish deals can be referred to as transformative deals, as they represent an effort by the publisher to move journals from a subscription model to a fully open access model. Some funders will stipulate that authors may only publish in a subscription journal if it is part of a transformative deal.

When deciding where to publish it is important that you ensure any institutional and funder policy requirements are met, such as when selecting a licence to apply to your open access article. You can find links to policies on our open access page.

Elsevier

Until December 2024, University of Wolverhampton authors can publish peer reviewed research articles on an open access basis in participating journals at no additional cost.

To be eligible to access the deal, the submitting corresponding author must be affiliated to the University of Wolverhampton during the submission process. The author will then receive an email detailing their “post-acceptance author journey” and offering the opportunity to choose the gold open access option.

For more details see the Elsevier deal webpage.

SAGE

During 2024, University of Wolverhampton authors can publish articles on open access basis in SAGE hybrid journals. SAGE will determine eligibility based on the affiliation chosen by the corresponding author and offer a CC BY or CC BY-NC licence, and authors retain their copyright in their work. Articles eligible for the deal must be accepted between 1 Jan 2023 and 31 December 2024.

Authors will be offered the opportunity to publish via the deal during the publication process. Some article types are excluded from the deal, such as book reviews and commercially sponsored articles. Titles that are part of the deal are in the 2024 SAGE Premier collection, as well as the IMechE and RSM collections, however if a title joins the collection during 2024, it may not join the deal.

The publisher provides information on the deal and the titles in the deal on their webpages.

Taylor and Francis

While funds last, University of Wolverhampton authors can publish peer reviewed research articles on an open access basis in Taylor and Francis's Open Select journals at no additional cost. For 2024, also added are F1000, Routledge Open Research and fully open access journals. Excluded are Dove Medical journals, as these are not T&F titles.

To be eligible for the deal, the corresponding author must be affiliated to the University of Wolverhampton during the submission process. Articles must be original research, other article types will not be eligible.

For more details see the Taylor and Francis agreement webpage. Taylor and Francis maintain a list of titles you can publish in, however, you must filter Dove Medical Press from the list. If you would like to confirm the eligibility of a title, please contact the Scholarly Communications Team.

Oxford University Press

In 2024, University of Wolverhampton authors can publish in a range of hybrid and fully open access journals with Oxford University Press.

To be eligible for the deal, the corresponding author must be affiliated to the University of Wolverhampton during the submission process. Articles must be original research or review articles, other article types will not be eligible. OUP will send you an email linking to SciPris, their online licensing and payment system, where you will be able to choose open access and to pay via the agreement.

For more details see the OUP agreement webpage.

Microbiology Society

During 2024, University of Wolverhampton has an unlimited deal for publication of open access articles across the full portfolio of Microbiology journals, covering four hybrid and two full OA journals. Articles are published under a Creative Commons CC BY licence.

To be recognised as eligible for this deal, the corresponding author must use their University of Wolverhampton email address when submitting an article. The publisher will notify the author of the ability to publish open access during the peer review process.

Further details of the deal, including the journal titles covered, can be found at https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/publish-oa.

Wiley

In 2024, authors at the University of Wolverhampton can apply to publish an article as open access in any of Wiley’s full OA journals while funds last, or hybrid OpenOnline journals (uncapped).

To check whether open access is available with a specific journal, use Wiley’s Author Compliance Tool.

Please note:

• Only primary research and review articles are eligible for this deal.
• To apply for Open Access publication, the responsible corresponding author must confirm their affiliation as University of Wolverhampton when submitting an article.
• If publishing in a hybrid journal you must order OpenOnline at the point of acceptance, if you do not select OpenOnline at this stage, your article will be published on closed, subscription access.

Full details of the deal, including the journal titles included in the deal, can be found at https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/open-access/affiliation-policies-payments/jisc-agreement.html.

Royal Society of Chemistry

During 2024, authors at the University of Wolverhampton can publish an article as open access in the RSC’s hybrid journals while funds are available. Articles are published under a Creative Commons CC BY or CC BY-NC Licence. Authors must use their institutional email when submitting an article, and include their affiliation in the submitted manuscript.

Full details of the scheme, including the list of hybrid journals covered in the deal, are available at https://www.rsc.org/journals-books-databases/open-access/read-and-publish/.

BMJ

During 2024, authors at the University of Wolverhampton can publish funded original research articles as open access in any of BMJ’s Standard Collection hybrid and fully gold journals without payment of an APC, while funds are available. Additionally authors can publish unfunded research in 34 hybrid titles.

To be recognised as eligible for this deal, the corresponding author must use their University of Wolverhampton email address when submitting an article. BMJ will automatically identify eligible authors and make them aware of the agreement on the members’ landing page at acceptance.

CC BY licences are available for all articles that qualify.

Only original articles reporting on primary research funded by the following bodies are eligible:

• UKRI
• Wellcome Trust
• British Heart Foundation
• Blood Cancer UK
• Cancer Research UK
• Parkinson's UK
• Versus Arthritis

Articles will be published under a CC BY licence.

More information is available on the BMJ Open Access Agreements webpage.

Cambridge University Press

During 2024, authors at the University of Wolverhampton can publish original research articles in Cambridge University Press covered by agreement with Jisc.

To apply for open access publication, the corresponding author must be affiliated with an institution taking part in the deal when submitting an article.

Full details of the scheme, plus a list of the journal titles covered by the deal are available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/open-access-policies/read-and-publish-agreements/oa-agreement-jisc

You can also confirm if a CUP journal title is covered by the deal using the OA Discount and Waiver checker.

University of Wolverhampton Open Access Fund

Funded researchers can apply for payment of gold open access charges.

Where to publish

Information on what to publish and where to publish it (including details on publishing conference papers, journal articles and books) can be found in the guidance provided by the Library Liaison team and can be found on the Publishing and Sharing Research page.

How to spot reputable publishers

Open access online publishing has many benefits, but it has also allowed new publishers to enter the market that do not apply sufficient rigour and quality control to the output they publish. Such publishing is sometimes referred to as ‘predatory publishing’-these publishers typically send spam e-mails to potential authors, solicit submissions and request payment of APCs but they do not have the scholarship and academic rigour of reputable peer-reviewed journals.

It isn’t always easy to spot predatory journals so care needs to be taken when selecting a journal for publication. The Journal Quality Indicator tool developed by the Library Liaison team can be used to make an informed assessment of the quality of the journal you are considering publishing in.

Other helpful aids for checking the quality of journals and conferences:

Thinkchecksubmit

This tool provides a checklist of questions to help researchers identify trusted journals.

Thinkcheckattend

This tool provides a checklist to help researchers identify trusted conferences and a conference checker tool.

DOAJ

The Directory of Open Access Journals is an actively curated list of open access journals and publishers, that regularly reviews journals against a set of selection criteria.