The University of California is committed to making it easier and more affordable for UC authors to publish open access. 

The UC libraries negotiate agreements with scholarly journal publishers to reduce the amount authors must pay when they choose to publish open access. Terms vary, but under most agreements:

  • The libraries automatically pay the first $1,000 of the open access fee, or article processing charge (APC), as part of a university-wide agreement.
  • The libraries will pay the full amount if an author does not have research funds available for this purpose. (See tips for budgeting for open access costs in future grants.)

Find details on the benefits available to UC authors, by publisher, below. UC offers discounts for authors publishing open access in many journals outside these agreements, as well. 

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American Association for the Advancement of Science

  • Discount or funding available:
    • 10% discount
    • Additional 4% discount available for AAAS members
  • Eligible journal: Science Advances
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LLNL, LBNL
  • Effective dates: Ongoing
  • See full details

American Chemical Society

  • Discount or funding available: 
    • Single, discounted APC of $3,000 (unless APC list price is lower than $3,000)
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
  • Eligible journals: All ACS journals
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LLNL, LBNL
  • Effective dates: January 1, 2022–December 31, 2025
  • See full details

Association for Computing Machinery

  • Discount or funding available: APC fully covered (no cost to author)
  • Eligible journals: Research and review articles in all ACM journals, proceedings and magazines
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LLNL, LBNL
  • Effective dates: January 1, 2020–December 31, 2022; extension through 2025 is currently in process. Articles accepted for publication in the meantime are covered.
  • See full details

Biochemical Society/Portland Press

  • Discount or funding available: 
    • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
  • Eligible journals: All Biochemical Society/Portland Press journals
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL
  • Effective dates: January 1, 2022–December 31, 2024
  • See full details

BioMed Central

  • Discount or funding available:
    • 15% discount
    • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
  • Eligible journals: All BioMed Central journals
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses 
  • Effective dates: 15% discount is ongoing. See Springer Nature agreement for dates of library support in covering the APC.
  • See full details

Cambridge University Press

  • Discount or funding available:
    • 30% discount
    • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing.
  • Eligible journals: Most CUP journals, with the exception of a small number of society-owned journals that do not yet offer an open access option.
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
  • Effective dates: January, 2019–December 31, 2025
  • See full details

Canadian Science Publishing

  • Discount or funding available: 
    • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
  • Eligible journals: All CSP journals
  • UC locations covered: 9 UC campuses (does not include UCSF, LBNL, LLNL)
  • Effective dates: January 1, 2021–December 31, 2023
  • See full details

Company of Biologists

  • Discount or funding available: 
    • 10% discount
    • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
  • Eligible journals: All CoB journals
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL
  • Effective dates: January 1, 2021–December 31, 2023
  • See full details

Electrochemical Society

  • Discount or funding available: APC fully covered (no cost to author)
  • Eligible journals: All ECS Digital Library journals
  • UC locations covered: 9 campuses (does not include UCSF), LBNL, LNLL 
  • Effective dates: Ongoing
  • See full details

Elsevier

  • Discount or funding available: 
    • 15% discount (10% for Cell Press and The Lancet)
    • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
  • Eligible journals: All Elsevier journals, excluding a limited number of society journals
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
  • Effective dates: April 1, 2021–March 31, 2025
  • See full details

Frontiers

  • Discount or funding available: APC fully covered (no cost to author)
  • Eligible journals: 20 selected journals in the humanities, social sciences and sustainability (see full details for title list)
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
  • Effective dates: August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2024
  • See full details

IEEE

  • Discount or funding available:
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
    • Authors with funds available for open access publishing are asked to pay the full APC
    • Overlength page charges are covered for all authors, whether or not they choose to publish open access.
  • Eligible journals: All IEEE journals
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses 
  • Effective dates: July 15, 2022–December 31, 2023
  • See full details

JMIR Publications

  • Discount or funding available:
    • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
  • Eligible journals: All JMIR journals
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
  • Effective dates: December 23, 2019–December 31, 2023
  • See full details

Karger

  • Discount or funding available: 50% discount
  • Eligible journals: All Karger journals
  • UC locations covered: 9 campuses (does not include UCSF), LBNL
  • Effective dates: Ongoing
  • See full details

National Academy of Sciences

  • Discount or funding available:
    • Single, discounted APC of $3,000 per article
    • No separate page charges
  • Eligible journal: PNAS
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
  • Effective dates: August 1, 2021–December 31, 2023
  • See full details

PLoS

  • Discount or funding available:
    • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
  • Eligible journals: All PLoS journals
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
  • Effective dates: April 1, 2020–May 31, 2024
  • See full details

Royal Society

  • Discount or funding available:
    • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
  • Eligible journals: All Royal Society journals
  • UC locations covered: 9 campuses (does not include UCSF), LBNL, LLNL 
  • Effective dates: January 1, 2021–December 31, 2023
  • See full details

Royal Society of Chemistry

  • Discount or funding available: 15% discount
  • Eligible journals: All RSC subscription journals
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
  • Effective dates: Ongoing
  • See full details

SAGE

  • Discount or funding available:
    • 20% discount for hybrid (subscription) journals; 15% discount for fully open access journals
    • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
  • Eligible journals: All SAGE journals, excluding small number of society journals
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
  • Effective dates: January 1, 2022–December 31, 2024
  • See full details

SPIE

  • Discount or funding available: 25% discount
  • Eligible journals: Journal of Biomedical Optics and Neurophotonics
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
  • Effective dates: Ongoing
  • See full details

Springer Nature

  • Discount or funding available: 
    • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
    • For Springer portfolio, full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing (Note: the Nature portfolio does not include a full APC coverage option)
  • Eligible journals: All journals are included in the agreement; see FAQ for details
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
  • Effective dates: January 4, 2021–December 31, 2024
  • See full details

Taylor & Francis

  • Discount or funding available:
    • Hybrid (subscription) journals: 75% discount
    • Full open access journals: Authors will pay the full APC or 25% of the standard hybrid price, whichever is lower
  • Eligible journals: All T&F journals
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
  • Effective dates: Ongoing
  • See full details

University of California Press

  • Discount and funding available: APC fully covered (no cost to author)
  • Eligible journals: Collabra: Psychology and Elementa
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
  • Effective dates: Ongoing
  • See full details

Wiley

  • Discount and funding available: 
    • 15% discount
    • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
    • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
  • Eligible journals: All Wiley journals, excluding those published by Hindawi
  • UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL
  • Effective dates: March 1, 2023–December 31, 2023
  • See full details

For more information about UC’s transformative agreements, please contact OpenAccessInquiries@ucop.edu, or your campus library:

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