Article processing charges are charged to authors to publish an article in either a gold open access or hybrid open access journal. By paying the APC, the published article is made available to anyone with an internet connection. For gold OA journals, an APC is generally required for publication; for hybrid journals, the author may choose to pay an APC to make their article open access. Making an article as open access has its advantages including increasing the visibility of your work.
If you are considering to publish gold OA, please check that you have funding in place before submitting your manuscript to the journal. Publication fees in journals are generally classified under fundable items by most research grants. If you have a source of grant funding, you may submit a fund virement request to seek approval for your OA publication fees
NUS Libraries seeks to support NUS researchers in sharing their work widely through open access. Besides supporting green open access via our institutional repository, ScholarBank@NUS, we have also negotiated several deals with publishers/societies. For NUS authors who are interested in publishing Open Access with these publishers/societies, please email us if you have any questions!
The publishers/societies below offer a discount to NUS authors who are paying APCs to make their articles openly available. Some deals offer a discount off the APC and others offer a limited number of tokens to offset either the full or partial cost of APC.
| Publisher | Journal Titles Covered | APC Discount |
|---|---|---|
| Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) | All journals, magazines, conferences | Waived from Jan 1, 2021 to Dec 31, 2025 |
| Cambridge University Press (CUP) | In selected journals |
Waived from Jan 1, 2023 to Dec 31, 2025 |
| Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | In selected journals | Waived from Jan 1, 2023 to Dec 31, 2024 |
| Elsevier | Core hybrid journals |
10% and limited number of *100% APC waivers *2024-04: The agreement has reached its maximum article allowance for 2024 |
| Karger | All Open Access and Hybrid journals except Kompass titles | Waived from Jan 1, 2021 to Dec 31, 2026 |
| Open Library of Humanities (OLH) | All journals | No APC |
| Oxford University Press (OUP) NEW | Hybrid journals | Limited number of 100% APC waivers |
| Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) | In selected journals | 15% and limited number of 100% (for hybrid journals only) |
| Sage | Sage journals that offers hybrid open access publishing (Sage Choice) |
*Limited number of 100% APC waivers *2024-05: The agreement has reached its maximum article allowance for 2024 |
| Wiley | Wiley Hybrid Journals and Wiley or Hindawi Fully Open Access Journals |
10% and limited number of 100% APC waivers |
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
NUS Libraries, School of Computing, and the Office of the Deputy President (Research & Technology) has worked together to enter into a 5- year open access agreement with ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery. For all submissions to ACM made between Jan. 1, 2021 and December 31, 2025, NUS corresponding authors have the choice to make their published works Open Access immediately at no cost to the author.
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
NUS Libraries has made a 3-year (2023-2025) Transformative Agreement with Cambridge University Press to offer corresponding authors from NUS to publish in Cambridge Open Access and Hybrid Journals without incurring any APCs. Refer to the Cambridge University Press website for the eligibility criteria and list of Cambridge journals covered by this agreement. For instructions on how to publish your article in open access under this agreement, refer to this step-by-step guide.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
NUS Libraries has signed a 2-year (2023-2024) Transformative Agreement with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press to waive APCs for NUS corresponding authors when publishing in selected journals. Refer to the publisher’s page for more information on the journal inclusion and eligibility criteria.
Elsevier
NUS Libraries has entered into a 2-year agreement (2023-2024) with Elsevier to waive APC for NUS authors who want to publish open access in Elsevier core hybrid journals. This agreement provides two tiers of APC support: a limited number of 100% discounted APC waivers, and once this maximum allocation has been reached, APCs will be eligible for a 10% discount instead.
Please refer to our guide for the full list of eligibility criteria and instructions on the submission process.
Karger
NUS Libraries has renewed a 3-year deal with Karger. APCs are waived for NUS authors who publish open access in Karger Open Access and Hybrid journals (except Kompass titles, which are by invitation only) between Jan. 1, 2024 and Dec 31, 2026. Refer to this guide for instructions on the submission process and the list of Karger journals covered by this agreement.
Open Library of Humanities (OLH)
The Open Library of Humanities (OLH) is a charitable organisation dedicated to publishing open access scholarship with no author-facing article processing charges (APCs). It is funded by an international consortium of libraries who have come together to make scholarly publishing fairer, more accessible, and rigorously preserved for the digital future.
To support NUS and international authors in the humanities in publishing open access, NUS Libraries has signed up as a member of OLH from September 2020 to September 2024. The OLH currently hosts 22 fully open access journals showcasing research from a number of Humanities disciplines including Classics, Modern Languages, Philosophy, History and Sociology. All authors may choose to publish in any OLH journals at no cost.
Oxford University Press (OUP)
NUS Libraries has engaged Oxford University Press (OUP) in a Read and Publish Agreement deal (2024) to waive APC for NUS authors who want to publish open access in OUP journals. For the full list of eligible criteria* for this agreement, refer to this page.
*Corresponding author must be a full time NUS staff/student and each NUS author is only eligible for 1 article allocation per calendar year.
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
RSC offers a 3-year deal (2022-2024) on APC discount for NUS authors to publish in fully Open Access journals and subscription-based journals that offer hybrid Open Access. As long as the email used to submit comes from NUS domain, the discount will be applied.
Sage
NUS Libraries has entered into a 3-year agreement with Sage (2024-2026) to waive APC for NUS corresponding authors who want to publish open access in 900+ Sage hybrid journals. This agreement provides a limited number of 100% discounted APC waivers.
Wiley
NUS Libraries has engaged Wiley in a 2-year Read and Publish Agreement (2023-2024) to waive APC for NUS authors who want to publish open access in Wiley hybrid journals, Wiley gold open access journals or Hindawi journals. This agreement provides two tiers of APC support: a limited number of 100% discounted APCs, and once this funding allocation has been used, APCs will be eligible for a 10% discount instead. For the full list of eligible criteria for this agreement, refer to this guide.
When publishing with Open Access, it is recommended to attach Creative Commons licenses to protect the rights of your works.
There are six CC license options. To determine which one is most suitable for you, you might want to consider the following questions:
You can also refer to the diagram and the table below for more information about the licenses.
Adapted from: foter / CC BY-SA
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This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials. |
Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects. |
Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND ) This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you. |
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Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. |
Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. |
Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially. |
Different publishers offer different CC Licenses that can be applied to your works. The table below provides more information on the policies of the publishers that have APC deals with NUS.
| Publisher | CC License options offered |
|---|---|
| Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) | CC-BY |
| Cambridge University Press (CUP) | CC-BY; CC-BY-NC-ND; CC-BY-NC-SA |
| Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press | CC-BY; CC-BY-NC |
| Elsevier | CC-BY; CC-BY-NC-ND |
| Karger | CC-BY-NC-ND |
| Open Library of Humanities (OLH) | CC-BY-SA; CC-BY-NC; CC-BY-ND; CC-BY-NC-SA; CC-BY-NC-ND |
| Oxford University Press (OUP) | CC-BY; CC-BY-NC; CC-BY-NC-ND |
| Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) | CC-BY; CC-BY-NC |
| Sage | CC-BY; CC-BY-NC |
| Wiley | CC-BY; CC-BY-NC; CC-BY-NC-ND |
Finally, if you need any assistance or help with choosing an appropriate CC license, you can make use of this Creative Commons License Chooser to help you with your decision.
