The Library and Information Service is pleased to announce that we have signed agreements with a number of publishers that make it easier for our researchers to publish in open access with these publishers, and in some cases to even publish in open access without paying any article processing charge (APC).
BioMed Central and SpringerNature
Our agreement with BMC has been replaced by an agreement with SpringerNature and now includes all fully open access journals of BMC, Nature Research (including Nature Communications and Scientific Reports), Palgrave Macmillan, Springer and SpringerNature. Under this agreement, the APCs for these journals will be deducted from Stellenbosch University’s prepaid deposit account with SpringerNature. Articles published in BioMed Central and SpringerOpen journals will receive a 15% discount on the APCs.
Before submitting a manuscript to one of these journals, corresponding authors affiliated with Stellenbosch University should complete an Open Access Publication Fund application form. If the application is approved, they may submit the manuscript, stating Stellenbosch University as their affiliation. When an article is accepted for publication, SpringerNature will ask the Library to verify the submitting author’s SU affiliation. The full APC will then be deducted from our deposit account. However, since the Open Access Publication Fund funds only 50% of the SU authors’ share of the publication cost, a refund will be claimed from the author in the form of a corrective journal transaction on the SUN system.
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
The Library has signed a Read and Publish agreement with CUP, which covers APCs as well as subscription payments. This agreement allows all corresponding authors from Stellenbosch University to publish research articles in open access in CUP journals at no extra cost. Authors must use their @sun email address when submitting an article to a CUP open access journal.
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
The ACM is a non-profit society publisher, which plans to achieve full open access within five years. The Library’s agreement with ACM includes access to ACM journals and allows SU authors to publish in open access in ACM journals at no cost. It is a 3-year agreement (2021-2023) with a fixed price for the length of the agreement. Authors can opt out of the open access arrangement and publish behind a paywall if they so choose.
MDPI and Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC): APC discounts
SU authors will receive a 10% discount on the APCs for any paper accepted for publication by MDPI and a 15% discount when publishing with RSC.
More information regarding the SU Open Access Publication Fund is available on our website.
Enquiries: Ms Naomi Visser, nrv@sun.ac.za, Tel 021 808 4433