Starting in 2020, the University of California’s system for open access publishing with Cambridge University Press will be fully in effect, under the transformative open access agreement first announced in April 2019. 

Funding is available from the UC libraries to cover open access publishing fees. The libraries will cover the entire cost for authors without grant funds available. Grant-funded authors will be asked to pay a portion of the cost, when feasible, but they, too, will find open access publishing much more affordable thanks to added support from the libraries.

A new payment workflow makes it easy to apply your funding support as a member of the UC community. We break everything down for you below.

What is changing for 2020?

Cambridge’s article submission processing system now asks all UC corresponding authors whether they wish to make their journal articles available open access. Authors interested in doing so are typically asked to pay an article processing charge. Under the new UC agreement, the UC libraries will pay at least the first $1,000 toward this fee. If there’s any remaining balance due on the fee, the Cambridge payment system will ask you if you have grant funding available to cover the balance. If you do not have grant funds to cover that difference, no problem: The UC libraries will pay the entire article processing charge on your behalf.

The UC libraries have also negotiated a 30% discount on all Cambridge article processing charges, which will be applied before the $1,000 library contribution, so the share that authors who do have available grant funding are asked to contribute is even lower.

Why are you being asked about grant funding?

By contributing grant funds, UC authors demonstrate their commitment to making their publicly-funded research accessible to the public. Additionally, participating in this way expands the pool of available funds for UC authors who do not have grant funding available to support their open access publishing.

Our FAQs explain that UC’s agreement with Cambridge has two goals: (1) to support UC’s mission as a public university and advance the global shift toward sustainable open access publishing by making UC-authored publications open to the world, and (2) maintain journal affordability.

The UC libraries have agreed to pay a substantial share of the article processing charges, including a full payment if authors do not have grant funds available. However, the libraries’ budget alone cannot cover the full cost of all open access publications while continuing to pay for subscription access where needed.

Making open access publishing the default pathway for authors, and offering the discounted article processing charges and the UC libraries’ financial support of at least $1,000 towards each article processing charge, will enable and encourage more authors — particularly those in disciplines without significant grant funding — to publish open access. 

What will the new payment process look like?

If you are a UC corresponding author and you select open access publishing through Cambridge’s article submission system after your article has been accepted, you will be asked to log into their payment processing system called CCC RightsLink.

(It is necessary to set up an account in RightsLink first; if you do not have an account, you will be prompted to create one within RightsLink during the payment process.) 

Then it’s just a matter of clicking through the following steps in the RightsLink system:

1. Select the option to receive funding from UC libraries. 

Your selection initiates the UC libraries’ contribution of at least $1000 toward your open access publishing fee.  Once you select this option, you will see a summary of charges that breaks the open access publishing fee into two components: the $1000 that the UC libraries will automatically pay, and the remainder that you will be asked to pay if you have research funds available.

2. Indicate whether you have research funds available to pay the  author’s portion of the open access publishing fee.

Choose whether you have research funds available to pay the remaining balance due, or whether you do not have such funds available and need the UC libraries to cover any remaining balance.

3. If you indicated that you do not have research funds available for the balance of the open access publishing fee, identify the reason full funding is needed.

Choose from a menu of options about why full funding is needed (e.g., the research is not grant-funded and you have no other sources of funding available; the grant budget did not include money for publishing; etc.)

After making these choices, you will still see the two components of the open access fee (first $1000 funded by UC, and balance funded by UC) on the charges estimate screen. Click “Payment Options” to proceed to the next step, where you will submit a request for full funding from the UC libraries.

4. If you indicated that you do have research funds available for the balance of the open access publishing fee, you will be invoiced.

If you select this option, you will see your portion of the open access fee disappear from the charges estimate; you will pay this charge later in the process.  Click “Payment Options” to proceed to the next step.

You will first be asked to submit the UC Libraries-funded component ($1000) for approval. Then you will be prompted to pay the remaining balance.  You can make this payment via credit card or request an invoice.

Questions? Your UC libraries are here to help!

Tags: Cambridge University Press, Open Access, Publisher Negotiations, UC Libraries