Making your article Open Access in certain journals may involve an article processing charge (APC), or publication fee. This fee can range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars depending on the journal. Publishers justify the charge as compensation for their publishing costs. Some publishers allow authors to submit a waiver or discount request.
It is important to note that many Open Access journals don't charge any APC (including journals published by universities -- see Journal of Scoiotechnical Critique and Virginia Journal of Science published in ODU Digital Commons). 60% of the journals in The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) do not charge an APC.
Transformative (read-and-publish) agreements through ODU and the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) allow ODU corresponding authors to forgo Article Processing Charges for open access to their articles.
AUTHORS, PLEASE NOTE that in most of the systems below:
ACM Journals (Association for Computing Machinery)
ODU and VIVA corresponding/lead authors can publish open access in all ACM conference proceedings and journals (not books or book chapters) with no APC fees. Authors retain their copyright. After acceptance, authors will receive a link to the ACM Open Author eRights platform where they can choose "Institutionally Paid Open Access / Permissions Release." The VIVA/ACM agreement runs from October 1, 2021 to December 31, 2024. More info.
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Beginning January 1, 2024, VIVA's agreement with ACS includes APC coverage for ODU (and VIVA) corresponding authors. More information is available on the ACS Site and the VIVA site. (Available to EVMS as well.)
Cambridge University Press
Any ODU (and VIVA) faculty, staff or student who is the corresponding author can publish open access in "almost all of the CUP journals; around 12 are not allowing open access at this time." Since January 2024, the agreement includes Cambridge Prisms and Cambridge Research Directions journals. Books and journals in the Elements series are not included. See the Author Guide to... Paying an Article Processing Charge (APC) (PDF – Links to an external source and may not be accessible). More info.
IOP (Institute of Physics)
A two-year pilot transformative agreement allows ODU and VIVA corresponding authors to publish open access with no fee from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024. Includes 58 IOP hybrid journals, 18 fully open access IOP journals, and all Electrochemical Society journals; does not include the American Astronomical Society (AAS) journals at this time. More info.
IWA Publishing (International Water Association)
Corresponding authors at ODU/VIVA institutions will be able to publish journal articles open access at no cost from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025 in the following journals: Aqua; Blue-Green Systems; H2Open Journal; Hydrology Research; Journal of Hydroinformatics; Journal of Water and Climate Change; Journal of Water and Health; Journal of Water Reuse and Desalination; Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development; Water Policy; Water Practice & Technology; Water Quality Research Journal; Water Science & Technology; and, Water Supply. More info at VIVA site. (Available to EVMS as well.)
PLoS
Beginning January 1, 2024, VIVA has started a two-year institutional partnership with PLOS in their Flat Fee Agreement, which allows corresponding authors at participating institutions to publish open access articles in seven PLOS journals at no cost. Those journals are: PLOS journals: PLOS Complex Systems, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Digital Health, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS ONE, and PLOS Pathogens. More information on the VIVA Site, or watch this 11-minute video here.
Rockefeller University Press
A VIVA read-and-publish agreement provides 100% coverage of APCs for open access to articles by ODU/VIVA corresponding authors to RUP's three hybrid journals—Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), and Journal of General Physiology (JGP). Upon submission of their manuscript, the corresponding author will be asked to validate their institution. The articles will be published under a CC-BY license, directly deposited to PubMed Central (PMC) and subsequently to Europe PMC, and archived in LOCKSS/CLOCKSS and Portico. The VIVA/RUP agreement runs from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023. More info. (Available to EVMS as well.)
Royal Society of Chemistry (RCS)
Beginning January 1, 2024, ODU established a transformative "read & publish" agreement with the Royal Society of Chemistry. ODU corresponding authors requesting open access will have their APC waived in all hybrid RSC journals, with a 15% discount available for fully open access journals. More info at RSC site.
Springer Nature Hybrid Journals
Beginning January 1, 2024, VIVA started a two-year agreement allowing ODU/VIVA corresponding authors to publish open access articles in Springer Hybrid journals with no APC. View the list of participating (publishing) journals on the VIVA site -- Nature, BioMed Central (BMC), and fully open access journals are not covered by this agreement. See also the Springer site and VIVA site for more information. (Available to EVMS as well.)
Wiley
Wiley will forgo APCs if an ODU/VIVA author of a research article is the corresponding/lead author in any fully gold Wiley journals. For hybrid OA journals (those including an OA option), the APC may be discounted. Authors retain their copyright, and articles are available without an embargo. During the online article submission process, select the payment option "The Corresponding Author's institution/funder has an agreement with Wiley." The VIVA/Wiley agreement runs from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2024 [a new agreement will extend from 2025 to 2027]. More info at VIVA site.
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
ODU authors can get a discount of $150 on APCs for AAAS publications. To receive these savings, you should submit ODU's AAAS number -- 1961861 -- upon acceptance of your manuscript.