Choosing a publisher and journal

The funding bodies' policies on OA are not aimed at restricting the range of journals where researchers may choose to publish their work. However, funders' OA requirements have become a major factor in when deciding where to submit papers for publication.

Fully Open Access journals make articles freely available as soon as they are published. In some cases publishing in fully OA journals is free (Diamond OA journals). The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) lists Diamond OA journals where submitting authors do not have to pay an APC and will retain copyright to their manuscripts.

With most OA journal titles authors will be asked to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC). This is levied when a paper is accepted for publication and no further action is required from the author. All OA journals are categorised as Gold OA journals and their license agreements meet with the UKRI requirements.

A number of journals are hybrid titles where some content is available as OA articles while the rest is only available to subscribers. When publishing with a hybrid journal, an author may choose to pay an APC to make the content openly accessible. This can sometimes be done retrospectively. The exact mechanism for doing this varies from publisher to publisher; and even between journals from the same publisher. NB! if a journal does not offer a suitable OA license agreement (Creative Commons CC-BY or equivalent) there is no point paying an APC making the article openly accessible as the paper will not meet the UKRI requirements for OA.

The Library has made available a Journal Search Tool for our researchers to look up their journal titles to determine if a Gold OA or hybrid title is part of a publisher agreement where the APC will be covered on our authors' behalf.

Visit our Gold OA publishing information page to find out more about our publisher agreements and available funding.

The SHERPA/FACT website, in its turn, assists in finding out whether a journal meets the requirements of a particular funding body for an OA journal. The Library can also assist in determining whether a journal is compliant with the Research England and funding body policies. Please email the Library if you would like to check your journal's compliance.