Open Access (OA) means that research outputs are made available online, in a digital format, at no charge to the reader and with limited restrictions on re-use.
There are two main routes to Open Access:
An Article Processing Charge (APC) is a fee charged by publishers to individuals or institutions wishing to publish their article in a journal which uses the Gold Open Access model. The benefit of this model is that anyone can read the research from the publisher's website for free, but the cost of the APC has to be considered. Please contact your Director of Research for guidance on APC funding available in your School.
Leeds Beckett University has agreements with the publishers listed below, which may mean if you are a LBU member of staff your APC is discounted or free. Please contact us for further information on how to access these discounts.
BioMed Central (BMC): 15% discount on APCs when the Leeds Beckett prepay membership account is used. This discount is available if your school has deposited funds into the account.
MDPI: Leeds Beckett University is member of their Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP), which gives affiliated authors a 10% discount on APCs. Discounted APCs are often payable on invited review articles please check you have funds to pay the APC before agreeing to write
PLOS: LBU authors have access to unlimited publishing, at no additional charge, in the following journals:
Follow these guidelines when submitting your article.
Sage: Corresponding authors publishing an article in 900+ subscription journals in the current SAGE Premier package, the IMechE Journal Collection and the Royal Society of Medicine Collection, can be published open access, free of charge. Corresponding authors publishing in gold open access journals will receive 20% discount on the APC.
Springer: Selected Open Choice journals have a waived APC. When your article has been accepted, select Leeds Beckett University as your institution and you will receive confirmation that your charge has been reduced to £0.
Taylor and Francis: Corresponding authors at Leeds Beckett University can publish open access in all Open Select (hybrid) journals free of charge, as the APC is funded by a JISC agreement.
To check if a journal is covered by the deal, use the Open Access Cost Finder. Next to OA Status, eligible journals will say Open Select. To retrieve a list of all eligible journals, filter to show all Open Select titles and click the Download Results button.
Please note there is an annual cap of articles that can be published open access under this deal. Any journal with an APC of £3000 or more has a more limited article cap.
Wiley: Authors affiliated with UK institutions participating in Wiley’s new Jisc agreement (including Leeds Beckett) may publish primary research and review articles in any of Wiley’s fully Gold Open Access or Wiley’s hybrid (subscription), OnlineOpen journals without having to pay the APC directly. Instead, this will be taken from a shared fund for participating UK (Jisc) institutions, until the fund is exhausted.
From July 1st 2021 Wiley are restricting OA publishing to UKRI/Wellcome (and previous COAF member) funded articles only. This is due to a cap imposed by the publisher.
Wiley are offering a 25% discount on APCs for authors who are not funded directly via an institution. Please contact us for the code.
Leeds Beckett University's Open Research Policy sets out our commitment to making the products of our research (both outputs and research data) publicly available.
Plan S
Plan S is an initiative to support Open Access Publishing. From January 2021, all Wellcome Trust funded research must be made available through Open Access immediately and without embargo. Other funders are likely to implement Plan S later in 2021. Further information can be found on the Plan S website.
UKRI Open Access policy
UKRI published a new Open Access policy in August 2021.
The next REF
The REF 2021 Open Access Policy continues for the next REF, until another policy is announced. The policy for the next REF may be influenced by both Plan S and the new UKRI policy.
