Publish article Open Access in a journal, sometimes for a fee, known as an "article processing charge" or "APC". This journal may be exclusively Open Access, or it may have a mixture of Open Access and subscription-only articles. These are referred to as HYBRID journals.
The publisher makes the article freely available upon publication.
The cost of publication is usually covered by a one-off fee, an article processing charge / APC, paid by the author. The average cost of an APC is approx. €2,000 per paper (ex. VAT at 23%).
APCs vary from journal to journal, covering the entire cost of the publication process e.g. peer-reviewing, editing, publishing, maintaining and archiving, and allows immediate access to the full text versions of the research articles.
APCs for open access is often an eligible cost in a grant application. The Budget for Publications = Average APC x number of expected publications
DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals
An online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
Quality Open Access Market (QOAM)
The QOAM is based on academic crowd sourcing and allows authors to see whether a particular journal is held in high regard and what the relevant publication costs are.
TUS Library can help facilitate Gold Open access for TUS authors via Transformative Agreements.
TUS library has two Transformative Agreements/Read and Publish Deals with Science Direct (Elsevier) and IReL that can help TUS authors publish Gold Open Access without having to pay for Article Process Charges (APCs). The agreements provide authors with free APCs.
What is a Transformative Agreement?
Transformative agreement is an umbrella term which describes agreements between institutions (libraries or a consortia of libraries) and publishers in which former subscription expenditures are repurposed to support open access publishing for the negotiating universities authors. These agreements are a way for publishers to move from traditional subscription journals to an open access model.
How do these Agreements Work?
A portion of the repurposed former subscription fee paid to the publisher by the library gives tradition 'read' subscription access, and the other portion of the repurposed fee allows for open access publishing. The agreements vary between publishers, some have uncapped publishing and others have quotas for the number of free APCs for articles.
The Library, Technological University of the Shannon: Midwest
