While many popular Open Access journals do require Author/Article Processing Charges (APC), "Diamond" Open Access journals publish work at no cost to the reader OR the authors. You can find Open Access journals that don't charge APCs by searching in the DOAJ.org:
Author Fees, Dalhousie Memberships and Negotiated Discounts
Open Access has provided great benefits to readers by making scholarly content freely available without the barrier of subscription fees. However authors who choose to publish in Gold Open Access journals must anticipate an Author Processing Charge (APC) that is levied by the journal publisher to cover publishing costs.
When possible, authors should include these APCs in their grant application if the journal they prefer to publish in is using this model. CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC all provide grant funds to cover APCs.
Dalhousie does not have an author fund to directly cover the cost associated with Author Processing Charges (APCs). However, the team from Dalhousie Libraries, often as part of a Canadian consortium (CRKN - the Canadian Research Knowledge Network) has negotiated transformative agreements that include discounts or waivers of APC charges. Please see the table below.
The following Dalhousie memberships and discounts are currently available. Never assume that a discount will be automatically applied. Always check with the publisher to confirm the discount.
| License | APC Discount | Instructions |
| American Chemical Society | $250 USD flat discount | APC discount is applied upon submission of manuscript. Authors must identify their institutional affiliation in order to qualify for the discount. |
|
Biomed Central |
15% discount |
Discount applies to fully Open Access journal only (hybrid journals are not included) and SpringerOpen titles. Manuscripts submitted from a Dalhousie IP will have the discount automatically applied. Manuscripts submitted using a non-registered IP address should activate the option to select Dalhousie in order to receive the discount. |
| BMJ Case Reports | 100% | Submit via casereports.bmj.com. At the end of the submission process, enter our fellowship code. You can obtain the code by sending a request to kellogg@dal.ca from your Dalhousie email address. |
| Cambridge University Press | 100% | Discount is applied when corresponding author is at Dalhousie (or another institution participating in this CRKN agreement). Waiver is for an unlimited number of articles in Cambridge hybrid and gold open access journals at no charge. Article types eligible under the agreement are: Research articles, review articles, rapid communication, brief reports and case reports. The waiver is applied as part of an automatic system. |
| Canadian Science Publishing |
25%* *note change as of January 2022 |
APC discount is applied upon submission of manuscript. Authors must identify their institutional affiliation in order to qualify for the discount. |
| Elsevier Science Direct | 20% Discount | The discount is offered to Corresponding Authors from Dalhousie University. Using the journals' normal workflow, the Corresponding Author must specify their affiliation. Based on this data, the Publisher will provide the Corresponding Author with the relevant publishing options. If accepted for publication in an eligible journal, Corresponding Authors may publish an article open access subject to a discount on the article publishing charge (“APC”) of 20% (twenty percent) based on the then current list price set forth at https://www.elsevier.com/books-andjournals/journal-pricing/apc-pricelist. Applies to articles submitted between period beginning 1 January 2021 until and including 31 December 2023. Journals excluded from this discount are listed here. For inquiries please contact: scholarly.communications@dal.ca |
| Open Library of the Humanities (OLH) | no APC for Dalhousie affiliates | |
| PLoS Medicine | 100% for Dalhousie corresponding author; 25% discount if any co-author is from Dalhousie |
Upon submitting your manuscript to PLOS Medicine, be sure to list your institutional affiliation in the submission system, Editorial Manager. If your work is accepted for publication, this field will be checked to ensure that benefits are applied to any publication fees. This agreement applies only to PLOS Medicine. It does not apply to any other PLOS titles like PLOS One. Follow the steps for submission as indicated, and if asked, you can confirm that Dalhousie is a Community Action Publishing (CAP) institutional partner. Note about corresponding vs contributing (co-author) benefits: If you are the corresponding author, your publication fees are automatically 100% covered. If the corresponding author is not a member, but at least one of the manuscript’s co-authors is a member, a 25% discount is available towards the non-member fee. |
| Royal Society of Chemistry | 15% discount |
The APC discount process is entirely automatic, following the steps outlined here:
|
| Royal Society of London | 100% waiver |
The APC waiver is applied automatically in the submission system. When asked about open access models, select Read and Publish |
| SAGE | 40% to 100% discount depending on the journal |
Dalhousie authors may now publish their articles as open access with no Article Processing Charge (APC) in most of over 900 SAGE Choice journals (a few journals are excluded from SAGE Choice and are listed here). In addition, authors receive 40% discount on APCs in SAGE’s gold open access journals. (see the title list of participating gold journals.) Processing of the APC waiver for SAGE Choice journals and the discount for gold open access journals is done automatically via the SAGE Open Access Portal (SOAP) when authors identify themselves as affiliated with Dalhousie University. SOAP is a dashboard for authors to submit their article, select a copyright license, assign a bill payer (if applicable), and view article status. A Creative Commons license (CC-BY) will be applied to open access publications unless a different license is requested by the author. For details on how to publish OA with SAGE please review the instructions for authors. |
| SpringerOpen | 15% discount | Applies to SpringerOpen titles only, not hybrid/subscription titles. Manuscripts submitted from a Dalhousie IP will have the discount automatically applied. Manuscripts submitted using a non-registered IP address should activate the option to select Dalhousie in order to receive the discount. |
| Taylor & Francis | 25% discount in T&F Open Select journals |
To take advantage of the discount on T&F Open Select journals, an author can submit an article and choose the open access publishing option. When the APC is generated, authors can select their institution from the drop-down menu, and the discount will be automatically applied. The author can select a Creative Commons license to sign once they accept the quote. |