The Library

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.

We have agreements with the following publishers which may mean your APC is discounted or free:

• BioMed Central (BMC) offer 15% discount on APCs when we use the Leeds Beckett prepay membership account.
• Sage Choice journals have a reduced APC of £200. Please contact us for the discount code.
• Selected ​Springer 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.

​Please contact us for further information on how to access these discounts.

Open Access (OA) means that items of scholarly work 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:

• Green OA means publishing in any journal and then self-archiving a version of the article (subject to copyright transfer agreement) in an institutional or subject repository. SHERPA/RoMEO provides details of journals that support Green Open Access and any embargo periods. After a possible embargo, your article will be available online, in a digital format, for free.
• Gold OA means publishing in a journal that provides immediate free access to all of its articles on the publisher's website. The publisher usually charges an Article Processing Charge (APC) to authors/institutions/funders. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) lists Gold Open Access only journals.

Many journals now operate a hybrid model where some of the articles are freely available to read but a subscription is required to read the remainder.

Hybrid journals will offer the choice of paying an APC in order to provide immediate OA from the publisher's website (Gold OA). Otherwise you can follow the Green route by publishing in the subscription part of the journal - and making your work Open Access through the Repository.

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