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)
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. |
| Cambridge University Press | 20% discount on gold or hybrid open access journals | 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. |
| Canadian Science Publishing | 50% discount on select titles* |
APC discount is applied upon submission of manuscript. Authors must identify their institutional affiliation in order to qualify for the discount *titles eligible for discount: Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism; Biochemistry and Cell Biology; Botany; Canadian Geotechnical Journal; Canadian Journal of Chemistry; Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering; Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences; Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatics Sciences; Canadian Journal of Forest Research; Canadian Journal of Microbiology; Canadian Journal of Physics; Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology; Canadian Journal of Research; Canadian Journal of Zoology; Environmental Reviews, Genome; Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems, Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering |
| Open Library of the Humanities (OLH) | no APC for Dalhousie affiliates | |
| SAGE | 40% discount |
Authors identify their institution affiliation upon manuscript submission. Authors are notified by email of article acceptance. They are also notified of their eligibility for the 40% APC discount. Within the SAGE Open Access Portal (SOAP), authors can accept or decline to publish their article open access. If an author declines to publish in open access, their article will be published via the subscription route. In the Portal, the author can select their copyright license and assign a payer (i.e. funding agency, institution, or a different bill payer), and make the APC payment. |
| 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. |