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Open Access publishing agreements and discounts

Thanks to specific agreements stipulated with publishers, Unipd authors who wish to publish their work in Open Access can take advantage of facilitations on the payment of APCs (Article Processing Charges).

 

Read & Publish, Transformative, Pure Open Access agreements and S2O

A Read & Publish agreement is an institutional agreement in which the scholarly publisher receives payment for reading and payment for publishing bundled into a single contract. According to this type of contract, only authors belonging to the subscribing institutions can publish in Open Access without paying APCs.

A Read & Publish contract is a transformative agreement if it seeks to shift the payment,  from a library or consortium to a publisher, away from subscription-based reading and towards open access publishing in subscription/hybrid journals committed to transitioning to fully Open Access (Gold OA) journals. Publishing in Gold OA journals may also be included. In Italy, transformative agreements have been achieved through national negotiation by the CRUI CARE consortium.

Pure OA agreement is an institutional publishing agreement with a fully Open Access (Gold OA) scholarly publisher, which enables authors to publish without paying APCs. 

S2O – Subscribe to Open are scholarly journal subscriptions aimed at OA transformation through a more cost-effective mechanism for participating institutions. S2Os are based on transparent subscription costs, with the goal of transitioning the journals to Diamond OA and to support community led OA publishing.

Each article managed under a publishing agreement is also defined as an "OA publishing token" or "voucher". In some agreements, OA vouchers for the free publication of Open Access articles, although available in large numbers, are limited at the local/national level and are expected to run out before the end of the calendar year.

 

Requirements for accessing the facilitations provided by Read & Publish, Transformative and Pure OA Agreements

The corresponding author must formally belong to the University. Upon submitting the article to the journal, the corresponding author must indicate affiliation with the University of Padua. Furthermore, the use of the institutional e-mail @unipd.it is preferable.

ATTENTION:

  • Only articles accepted by the publisher during the term of the contract are included in the facilitations.
  • Some contracts provide for a maximum number of articles available annually for Open Access publication, at a national level. Information on the availability of vouchers or tokens (as they are defined by some publishers) is constantly updated in the boxes dedicated to individual publishers.
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included.

 

Transformative Agreements and Pure OA Publishing Agreements: No APC Fees for Authors

Attention!

Contract still be under national negotiation. At the moment the benefits are NOT confirmed for 2024 or 2025. During the this period, in the event of manuscript acceptance in ACS journals, we recommend publishing the article under the subscription model and self-archiving the accepted version (AAM) in the institutional repository, Padua Research Archive (IRIS).

Characteristics of the contract
  • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
  • Extent: 2020 - 2023
  • Open access publications in hybrid journals (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles) of the publisher, without the need for any payment of OA article publishing charges
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included.
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution

Characteristics of the contract
    • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
    • Extent: 2023-2026
    • Open access publications in hybrid journals (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles)
    • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included
    • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
    • A limit has been set on the number of OA articles that can be published annually at the national level. This number is in line with the expected needs of the member institutions
    • Eligible Articles: Article, Conference Article, Letter, Research Update, Review
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution.

Characteristics of the contract
    • Extent: 2024
    • Open access publications in Gold (full OA) and Hybrid journals (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles)
    • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included
    • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
    • Unlimited number of OA articles
    • Eligible Articles: all types
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution.

Characteristics of the contract
    • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
    • Extent: 20/07/2023-31/12/2025
    • Open access publications in hybrid journals (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles), Gold journals (full Open Access), and in conference proceedings series
    • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included
    • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution.

07/10/2024: BMJ temporarily suspends facilitations for Gold journals

Refunds and retrospective conversion are foreseen for articles accepted from 1 January 2023 until 30 June 2024: the authors will be contacted by the publisher.

Characteristics of the contract
  • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
  • Extent: 01/01/2023 - 31/12/2024
  • Open access publications in all the journals of the publisher, both Hybrid (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles) and Gold (full Open Access)
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included.
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution

Characteristics of the contract
  • University contract, part of the actions in support of Open Access implemented by the University of Padua Open Science Commission
  • Extent: 01.07.2023 -
  • Open Access publications in all the Gold OA (full Open Access) journals of the BioMed Central - BMC brand (SpringerNature)
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
  • There are no limits to the number of OA articles that can be published, whose availability may depend on the depletion of the fund established by the University of Padua Open Science Commission
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution.

Characteristics of the contract
  • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
  • Extent: 2020 - 2025
  • Unlimited Read and Publish agreement includes open access publications in all the journals of the publisher, both Hybrid (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles) and Gold (full Open Access), without the need for any payment of OA article publishing charges
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included.
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution

Characteristics of the contract
  • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
  • Extent: 2020-2022; 2023-2025
  • Open access publications in hybrid journals (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles) of the publisher, except those published by scientific societies or associated publishers, without the need for any payment of OA article publishing charges
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included.
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution

Further benefits

There is also a 20% discount on the price list of Article Processing Charges (APCs) for fully open access journals.

On May 10, 2024, CRUI CARE announced that the quota of 2024 Full OA Journals' articles, available for Italian institutions through the read & publish contract, is exhausted.

Until December 31, 2024, a discount of 15% on full APC will be available for corresponding authors who choose to publish in Full OA Journals.

Characteristics of the contract
  • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
  • Extent: 2023-2027
  • Open access publications in both Elsevier's Gold Hybrid (i.e. scholarly journals that may contain both open access and paywalled articles) and Gold OA (full Open Access) journals, without the need for any payment of OA article publishing charges - APCs.  Pay attention! As of May 10, 2024, the quota of articles in full OA journals is exhausted for 2024.
  • Please remember that by choosing the Open Access option the corresponding author undertakes to pay the APC with his/her funds in case of refusal or impossibility of financial coverage by the institution with which he/she is affiliated
  • The following titles are excluded:
    • journals in the Clinics collection
    • The Lancet collection of hybrid OA titles
    • about 300 "ineligible" titles, either because they do not have an OA publication option available or because OA publication is supported by research or government bodies (i.e. SCOAP or Diamond OA journals)
  • Eligible Articles:
    • Original Paper
    • Review Paper
    • Case Report
    • From January 1, 2025, also Short Communications will be included.
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
  • Green OA: Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) versions of non-OA articles can be deposited with a maximum embargo of 12 months, even in the case of journals with a longer embargo.
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution.

Characteristics of the contract
  • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
  • Extent: 2020 - 2024

The next contract is currently under national negotiation. As of now, benefits are confirmed for 2024 only. We recommend that authors consider self-archiving the peer-reviewed, accepted version (AAM - Author Accepted Manuscript) in the institutional repository, Padua Research Archive (IRIS)

  • Open access publications in both Hybrid (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles) and Gold OA (full Open Access) journals of the publisher, without the need for any payment of OA article publishing charges
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included.
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution

Characteristics of the contract
  • University contract, part of the actions in support of Open Access implemented by the University of Padua Open Science Commission
  • Extent: 01.04.2024 -
  • Open Access publications in all the Gold OA journals published by Frontiers. It also includes some Society Journals.
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included
  • Publication license: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
  • There are no limits to the number of OA articles that can be published, whose availability may depend on the depletion of the fund established by the University of Padua Open Science Commission
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution

Characteristics of the contract
  • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
  • Extent: 01/08/2022 - 31/12/2024

The next contract is currently under national negotiation. As of now, benefits are confirmed for 2024 only. We recommend that authors consider self-archiving the peer-reviewed, accepted version (AAM - Author Accepted Manuscript) in the institutional repository, Padua Research Archive (IRIS)

  • Unlimited Read and Publish agreement includes open access publications The new contract goes into effect on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. From that date, eligible authors will begin receiving messages about potential eligibility for open access coverage.
    Refunds and retrospective conversion are foreseen for articles published from 1 January 2024 until 9 July 2024: the authors will be contacted by the Approval Team. without the need for any payment of OA article publishing charges
  • Retrospective OA conversion is available until 90 days from the date of the first online publication by IEEE
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included.
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution

Characteristics of the contract
  • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
  • Extent: 01/01/2023 - 31/12/2025
  • Unlimited Read and Publish agreement includes publishing in all hybrid and fully OA titles including open access publications in both Hybrid (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles) and Gold OA (full Open Access) journals of the publisher, without the need for any payment of OA article publishing charges
  • Some IOP partners' Journals are not included in the Read & Publish Subscription
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included.
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution

Characteristics of the contract
  • Read & Publish agreement
  • Extent: 2024-
  • Open access publications in gold, S2O (subscribe-to-open) serials and hybrid journals (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles) of the publisher, without the need for any payment of OA article publishing charges (APCs)
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included.
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (copyright is retained by the authors)
  • This action is part of the supporting OA actions from the University of Padua's Open Science Commission
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution

The next contract is currently under national negotiation. As of now, benefits are confirmed for 2024 only. We recommend that authors consider self-archiving the peer-reviewed, accepted version (AAM - Author Accepted Manuscript) in the institutional repository, Padua Research Archive (IRIS)

Characteristics of the contract
  • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
  • Extent: 2020 - 2023; 2024
  • Open access publications in hybrid journals (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles) of the publisher, without the need for any payment of OA article publishing charges
  • The type of documents for which the concession provided by the contract is applicable are: Original Paper, Review paper
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY ()
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution

Characteristics of the agreement
  • Unlimited full open access agreement
  • Deadline: December 31, 2024. Agreement renewal is ongoing
  • Corresponding authors from the University of Padua can publish without any APC cost in PLOS Biology, PLOS Climate, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Digital Health, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Global Public Health, PLOS Medicine, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS ONE, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, PLOS Water. New and upcoming titles PLOS Complex Systems and PLOS Mental Health are included!
  • This action is part of the supporting OA actions from the University of Padua's Open Science Commission

 

Characteristics of the contract
  • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
  • Extent: 2022 - 2024

The next contract is currently under national negotiation. We recommend that authors consider self-archiving the peer-reviewed, accepted version (AAM - Author Accepted Manuscript) in the institutional repository, Padua Research Archive (IRIS)

  • Open access publications in hybrid journals (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles), without the need for any payment of OA article publishing charges
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included.
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution

SCOAP3 (Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics) is a financing model for publication costs in Particle Physics journals. It is an international project, coordinated by CERN in Geneva since 2014, aimed at supporting the costs of Open Access publication.

The University of Padua adheres to the SCOAP3 project, therefore UniPd authors do not sustain any expenses to publish in OA in the following journals:

  • Acta Physica Polonica B (APPB). Ed. Jagiellonian University in cooperation with the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • Advances in High Energy Physics (AHEP). Ed. Indawi
  • Chinese Physics C (CPC). Ed. IOP
  • The European Physical Journal C (EPJC). Ed. Springer
  • The Journal of High Energy Physics (JHEP). Ed. Springer
  • Nuclear Physics B (NPB). Ed. Elsevier
  • Physics Letters B (PLB). Ed. Elsevier
  • Physical Review C (PRC). Ed.APS Physics - Since 2018
  • Physical Review D (PRD). Ed.APS Physics - Since 2018
  • Physical Review Letters (PRL). Ed.APS Physics - Since 2018
  • Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (PTEP). Ed.Oxford University Press in cooperation with JPS The Physical Society of Japan

Publication license: CC BY and the authors maintain the copyright on the work.

Attention!

07/10/2024: CARE-CRUI announces the exhaustion of the Open Access fund, starting from today.

In case of acceptance of papers in the period October-December 2024, we recommend publication under subscription (NOT Open Access) and self-archiving of the refereed/accepted version in the institutional repository Padua Research Archive (IRIS).

Characteristics of the contract:
  • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
  • Articles accepted between 2020 and 31/12/2024
  • Open access publications in hybrid journals (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles) of the Springer publishing group (comprised in the SpringerLink platform), without the need for any payment of OA article publishing charges
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included.
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
  • The agreement does NOT include Nature portfolio journals
  • As for BioMed Central - BMC brand (full Open Access), total coverage of costs is foreseen through a University contract: see the conditions in the specific space above
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount

Affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email and/or IP address and/or name of the institution

Attention!

The new contract goes into effect on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. From that date, eligible authors will begin receiving messages about potential eligibility for open access coverage.

Refunds and retrospective conversion are foreseen for articles accepted in hybrid journals and submitted in gold OA journals (if then accepted), in the period from 1 January 2024 until 9 July 2024: the authors will be contacted by the Approval Team.

Characteristics of the contract:
  • Italian consortium contract (CARE - CRUI)
  • Extent: 10/07/2024-31/12/2027
  • Open access publications in both Hybrid (i.e. journals that may contain both open access and closed access articles) and Gold OA (full Open Access) journals listed below, without the need for any payment of OA article publishing charges
  • The contract covers only open access fees; other expenses (colour pages, extra length, etc.) are not included.
  • Eligible Article Types:
    • Case Study, Commentary, Data Article, Education (Istruzione), Lecture, Method and Protocol, Perspective, Practice and Policy, Rapid Publication, Research Article, Review Article, Short Communication, Technical Note
  • Publication license suggested: CC BY (Copyright remains with the author)
  • There is a limit to the number of OA articles that can be published annually, at a national level. Available articles may run out before the end of the calendar year: information will be provided promptly on this web page
Essential conditions to take advantage of the discount:

affiliation of the corresponding author identifiable by the publisher through institutional email or name of the institution

 

Subscribe to Open – S2O: no APC fees for everyone

Characteristics of the contract

The publications involved in the S2O initiative are the following:

  • Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering
  • Annual Review of Cancer Biology
  • Annual Review of Environment and Resources
  • Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics
  • Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science
  • Annual Review of Political Science
  • Annual Review of Public Health
  • Annual Review of Virology
Characteristics of current subscriptions
Characteristics of current subscriptions

EDP, EDP & SMAI Journals involved in the S2O initiative are the following:

  • Astronomy & Astrophysics
  • ESAIM: Control Optimisation and Calculus of Variations
  • ESAIM: Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis
  • ESAIM: Probability and Statistics
  • Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena
  • RAIRO – Operations Research
  • RAIRO – Theoretical Informatics and Applications
Characteristics of current subscriptions
Characteristics of current subscriptions
2024 and 2025 S2O subscriptions from various scholarly publishers
This action is part of the supporting OA actions from the University of Padua's Open Science Commission.

 

Publishers who provide other kinds of facilitation

Pay attention! As of May 30, 2024, the quota of articles in Gold (full) OA journals has already been exhausted (see Read & Publish contract above).

Characteristics of the discount:
  • A discount of 15% on full APC is available, contact us if the publisher does not automatically apply it to the proforma invoice
The University of Padua adheres to the "Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP)" with the full Open Access publisher MDPI.

This free membership allows authors to get a 10% discount on MDPI Open Access Article Processing Charges or Book Processing Charges

Attention!

Contract is no longer active from 6 May 2024. After that date, requests of payment for APCs will no longer be managed under the membership between CAB and Taylor & Francis, but directly by the publisher according to the current price list.

 

Open Access Infrastructures

The University of Padua supports free world-scale services used globally for open access content dissemination:

  • DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) is supported by the University of Padua's Open Science Commission 2024 OA action
  • DOAB / OAPEN (via Knowledge Unlatched) are supported by the University of Padua's Open Science Commission 2024 OA action

 

Library Helpline

If you need any further information, please contact the Library Helpline. Select:

  • "Supporto alla pubblicazione accademica" [Scholarly publishing support]
  • "Consulenza tematiche diritto d’autore" [Copyright support]
  • "Supporto Open Science (Open Access, Open Data)" [Open Science support]