Are you planning on publishing an article in a Springer journal? Did you know that you can choose to make your article Gold Open Access without paying a fee?
Gold Open Access means paying an article processing charge (APC) to make your work Open Access.
The benefits are that:
- Your publication will be available immediately, without an embargo
- Your publication will be eligible for the next REF
- You keep the copyright over your work and have more licensing options
- You’re usually allowed to use the Version of Record (publisher’s pdf) on KAR and on your personal or departmental website.
No need to pay an APC in Springer journals
As a member of the University of Kent you can choose to make articles published in any of these Springer journals Open Access without paying for an APC. The cost of doing so is covered by an increased subscription charge for all Springer journals, paid for by the Library. This is part of a UK national agreement deal negotiated by JISC. Find out more about these Transformative Read and Publish agreements
To take advantage of this deal you need to be
- a University of Kent staff member or research postgraduate
- the corresponding author
- have an article accepted for publication after October 2015 when the agreement began
What you need to do
- You need to identify yourself as a member of the University of Kent. Use your Kent email address, not a private email address, so that Springer can identify you as eligible under the agreement.
- After your article has been accepted for publication, you will receive an email with a link to the MyPublication process pages
- By default, all articles by University of Kent corresponding authors will be Open Access via OpenChoice without you needing to take any further action.
- More information is provided by Springer on their UK Read and Publish agreement webpage
Make sure you understand the licence
When you publish Open Access you must select the Creative Commons licence under which you choose to make your work available. Most of Springer’s journals ask you to publish under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY). This CCBY lets others distribute and build upon your work, even commercially, but they must credit you for the original creation.
What is not covered
- Any other journal publication costs, such as charges for colour figures in print or oversized articles, are not covered and are invoiced separately
- Articles in Springer’s fully Gold Open Access journals. Springer calls these their SpringerOpen journals
- Articles in Nature titles
Not publishing in Springer?
If you are not publishing with Springer’ have a look at our APC webpage for details of similar agreements with other publishers. All agreements are detailed on our APC pages along with the action you need to take.
Or you can still apply for an APC to make your article Open Access in other publishers’ titles. You are eligible if you meet one of these criteria.
- your research is highly rated by your School (equivalent to 3* or 4* in the last Research Excellence Framework) and you are publishing in a pure Gold journal listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals
- your work is funded by one of the members of Research Councils UK (RCUK)
And finally
- It is always a good idea to check that the publisher has actually made your article Open Access. The journal site should clearly state that the article is freely available. Try accessing the full text of the article off campus from a search engine.
- Add your publication to KAR and upload the full text. Check Sherpa Romeo to make sure you can add the publisher pdf to KAR (this information will be from the link in the “Paid Open Access” section)
- Apply the right licence. See this post about licences and your work in KAR
Help and guidance
Springer’s UK Read and Publish agreement webpage
Email: researchsupport@kent.ac.uk
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