Scholarly Publishing and Communication

Open access (OA) can be defined as content that is “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.” (Suber 2012)

Some of the benefits of OA include:

• Free, immediate, and equitable access to content
• Promotes collaboration and scientific advancement
• Higher citation rates and research impact

While this page has a focus on OA articles, other research outputs can be published OA as well. Read more about OA benefits and debunking common myths in the article Benefits of publishing your work open access: debunking myths.

Open Scholarship and Research Impact Challenge

Gold OA

• Involves publication in an OA journal
• Requires a publication fee called an article processing charge (APC)
  • APCs can sometimes be covered or reduced by research funders, institutions, and sometimes by the journal publisher
• Once published, content is immediately and freely available to everyone
• Find Gold OA journals in the Directory of Open Access Journals

Hybrid OA

• Gives authors the option to make their work OA
• Requires an APC
• Once published, content is immediately and freely available to everyone

Green OA

• Involves depositing the postprint version of the article into an OA repository.
  • Examples include institutional repositories (D-Scholarship@Pitt) or subject repositories (see OpenDOAR to explore different options).
  • Article is made open access in the repository after an embargo period.
• Check first that the journal has a policy that allows for green OA.
• No APCs

The following are two resources that allow you to check the OA policies of journals and funders ahead of time before you submit. For the most up to date information, refer to the journal or funder's website.

Journal Policies

SHERPA Romeo aggregates information on journal open access policies. Search by journal title, ISSN, or publisher name to view a summary of their OA options, including green OA. Records in this database includes information on publication fees, copyright ownership, embargo timelines, and more. 

Funder Policies

SHERPA Juliet includes information about funder policies on open access publishing and data archiving.

The University of Pittsburgh has agreements with the following publishers that enable you to publish open access in their journals free of charge. 

Elsevier

• Corresponding authors currently enrolled as students or employed at the University of Pittsburgh or UPMC may publish open access at no charge in most hybrid Elsevier journals to which Pitt is a paid subscriber, without APC charges, until the end of 2026 (subject to availability within an overall cap).
• To take advantage of this deal, corresponding authors must specify Pitt or UPMC as institutional affiliation in the manuscript submission process.
• Gold Open Access journals are excluded from this agreement (with limited exceptions).
• Corresponding authors currently enrolled as students or employed at the University of Pittsburgh or UPMC will receive a 10% discount when publishing in eligible Cell Press titles.

Wiley

• Corresponding authors who are currently enrolled as a student or employed at the University of Pittsburgh or UPMC may publish open access at no charge to the author. To qualify, articles must be published in a Wiley fully open access journal (submitted on or after 1 January 2024) or published open access in a hybrid journal (accepted on or after 1 January 2024). Subject to availability within an overall cap.
• Eligible article types include primary research, review articles and cases studies.
• To receive the waiver, corresponding authors must create an account in Wiley’s Author Services system using their Pitt (or UPMC) e-mail address. If you already have an account, but with an e-mail from a previous institution, please change your primary email to your Pitt or UPMC e-mail address before submitting your article.
• For Open Access Journals, authors will also be prompted to choose a payment option where they can enter PITT as the open access account code to apply for the waiver.
• Search Journal Finder to select from over 1,400 journals included in this deal.
• For more information how to submit your manuscript, see the Wiley Author Services webpage on Open Access Options for Your Article.

Cambridge University Press

The NorthEast Research Libraries Consortium (NERL), which the University of Pittsburgh is a member of, has a Read and Publish agreement with Cambridge University Press (CUP) that waives article processing charges (APCs) for open access articles that meet the following eligibility criteria: 

• Have a corresponding author affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh or UPMC. 
• Be original research—eligible article types are research articles, review articles, rapid communications, brief reports, and case reports. 
• Be accepted for publication in a CUP journal covered by the agreement. Use this tool and select "University of Pittsburgh" to generate a list of eligible journals.
• Be accepted for publication on or after January 1, 2022.

See CUP's guide to learn more about how publishing open access under this agreement works.

NOTE: Other uncommon fees and publication charges not related to open access, such as page charges, may not be covered under this agreement. Carefully read the journal’s policies and instructions for authors before submitting your manuscript.

De Gruyter

• University of Pittsburgh researchers who are corresponding authors can now choose to publish in most hybrid and open access De Gruyter journals without APC charges.
• University of Pittsburgh authors must opt-in to open access upon article submission to take advantage of this deal.
• Eligible article types include original research and review articles.
• To receive the waiver, make sure to use your pitt.edu e-mail address in the article submission process. Then, select that you want to publish under one of the Open Access licenses.
• Instructions on how to submit are specified on each journal webpage under the Submission of Manuscripts tab. For more information how to submit your manuscript see De Gruyter's webpage For Journal Authors.

Microbiology Society

• University of Pittsburgh and UPMC researchers who are corresponding authors can now choose to publish in all Microbiology Society journals without APC charges.
• Articles accepted for publication after January 1, 2024, are eligible under this program.
• To receive the waiver, authors must use their institutional e-mail address (@pitt.edu; @chp.edu; @magee.edu; @upmc.edu) in the article submission process. Then, they need to select one of the Open Access licenses.
• For more information about the submission process see the Microbiology Society's Publish and Read Author Guide.

American Chemical Society

• University of Pittsburgh researchers who are corresponding authors can now choose to publish open access in ACS Publications without APC charges.
• The agreement includes access to all American Chemical Society publications and covers article processing charges (APCs) in gold open access and hybrid journals.
• University of Pittsburgh authors must opt-in to open access upon article submission to take advantage of this deal.
• Please use your Pitt email address when submitting to avoid delays.

Company of Biologists

• University of Pittsburgh researchers who are corresponding authors can now choose to publish open access in Company of Biologists journals without APC charges.
• Please use your Pitt email address when submitting to avoid delays.
• For more information how to submit your manuscript see: information for authors.

IOP (Institute of Physics)

• Unlimited fee waiver in 2023 - 2025 for articles with a Pitt-affiliated corresponding author in most IOP journals.
• Use your Pitt email address when submitting articles to avoid delays. All eligible articles will automatically be made OA unless the author opts out.
• From 2024, journals from the Electrochemical Society are also included in the deal (ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology and Journal of The Electrochemical Society).
• Note: American Astronomical Society journals are not included in this agreement.
• For more information how to submit your manuscript see IOP's A Guide to Submitting Under a Transformative Agreement.

John Benjamins Journals

• University of Pittsburgh researchers who are corresponding authors can now choose to publish open access in all John Benjamins journals, without APC charges.
• To be eligible, University of Pittsburgh authors must be listed as corresponding author, use their institutional email address (pitt.edu), and have their affiliation stated in the article to be published.
• Eligible article types include research articles, reviews, and introductory articles.
• To be eligible, manuscripts need to be submitted between January 1 and December 31, 2024. (This program is subject to annual renewals)
• See John Benjamins website Information for Authors of Journal Articles for more information.

Royal Society of Chemistry

• In 2024 University of Pittsburgh researchers who are corresponding authors can now choose to publish open access in all Royal Society of Chemistry journals (apply “select institution” filter to see which titles are covered), without APC (Article Processing Charges) charges.
• To be eligible, University of Pittsburgh authors must be listed as corresponding author, use their institutional email address (pitt.edu), and have their affiliation stated in the article to be published.
• This program is subject to annual renewals.
• For more information about open access publishing with RSC, see their Open Access Publishing website.

Bioscientifica

Bioscientifica allows corresponding authors affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh to receive a 50% discount on open access charges when opting in to open access in one of their hybrid journals, all 4 of which HSLS subscribes to. See the Hybrid (subscription) journals section on Bioscientifica's website for more information.

Science Advances

Corresponding authors who list their institution as the University of Pittsburgh will automatically receive a 5% APC discount for their open access articles.

SPIE Journals

Corresponding authors affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh are eligible to receive a 25% APC discount when publishing in SPIE's Gold and Hybrid journals. For more information, see the SPIE Journals Open Access website.