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:
A commercial entity called Systematic Review Consultants Ltd. has also assessed a body of Medical OA journals with no APCs and created a free list of those they have deemed non-predatory or "good".
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. Please use your Dalhousie email address when submitting. Never assume that a discount will be automatically applied. Always check with the publisher to confirm the discount.
This waiver is for Dalhousie-affiliated authors to publish an unlimited number of articles in the Cambridge hybrid and gold open access journals at no charge.
Who is eligible?
This discount is applied when the corresponding author is at Dalhousie (or another institution participating in this CRKN agreement). Article types eligible under the agreement are: Research articles, review articles, rapid communication, brief reports and case reports.
How to apply
The waiver is applied as part of an automatic system. Please use your Dalhousie email address when submitting.
Dalhousie-affiliated authors can publish open access articles to a range of journals without paying an article processing charge.
Who is eligible?
The affiliation of the corresponding author is used to determine eligibility for the waiver. Dalhousie-affiliated authors are eligible for this discount.
What journals are eligible?
Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology, Disease Models & Mechanisms or Biology Open.
How to apply
Submit your article using the Company of Biologists’ Bench>Press submission system for your chosen journal. When providing your contact details, please include your Dalhousie email address, as well as the full Dalhousie address, including the name “Dalhousie University” and our location in Canada. If you are submitting an article to Development, Journal of Cell Science or Journal of Experimental Biology, be sure to select “Gold Open Access” and “Read & Publish fee waiver.” For full instructions on submissions, please see the Guide for authors.
Dalhousie affiliated corresponding authors are eligible for unlimited open access publishing in Elsevier ScienceDirect hybrid journals without paying an APC.
What journals are eligible?
More than 1,800 Elsevier hybrid journals, that can be found in the list of titles under the Elsevier ScienceDirect section of the CRKN website.
How to apply
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. This agreement applies to articles submitted between period beginning 1 January 2024 until and including 31 December 2026. Please see the author workflow document for further information.
As Dalhousie is one of the the supporting institutions of OLH, Dalhousie-affiliated authors are able to submit articles for publishing to a wide range of journals through OLH at no cost.
What journals are eligible?
OLH has an extensive list of open access journals related to the humanities. The OLH website contains a full list of their open access journals.
How to apply
Be sure to include the affiliations of the authors and editors when submitting the expression of interest form, which can be located on the journal applications page.
Corresponding authors listing a primary Dalhousie affiliation are eligible for a 100% waiver of the APC of Oxford hybrid journals. Dalhousie-affiliated authors are also eligible for a 10% discount on APCs when publishing in Oxford's gold open access journals.
What journals are eligible?
A list of eligible journals is linked on the Oxford University Press website. (Look next to the agreement "Canadian institutions (CRKN affiliated)")
How to apply
OUP has created a step by step guide for authors.
This journal offers a discount for Dalhousie-affiliated authors: 100% for a Dalhousie corresponding author, and 25% discount if any co-author is from Dalhousie.
What journals are eligible?
This agreement applies only to PLOS Medicine or PLOS Biology. It does not apply to any other PLOS titles like PLOS One.
How to apply
Upon submitting your manuscript to PLOS Medicine or PLOS Biology, 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. 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.
Thanks to the read and publish agreements offered by Royal Society, all open access fees and invoices are automatically waived for Dalhousie-affiliated authors.
What journals are eligible?
Open access options are available for all Royal Society journals. Two of their journals are fully open access: Royal Society Open Science, and Open Biology.
How to apply
The APC waiver is applied automatically in the submission system. When asked about open access models, select Read and Publish.
Dalhousie authors may now publish their articles as open access with no Article Processing Charge (APC) in most SAGE Choice journals. These are "hybrid journals" that offer the option to make articles open access in what are otherwise subscription access journals.
What journals are eligible?
More than 900 Sage Choice journals are eligible for this waiver. To check eligibility, follow the link called "list of journals that do offer Sage Choice" on this page. There are two exceptions to this offer. 1) Sage Choice does not include Gold Open Access journals - journals that are completely open access (see below for the Sage Gold OA journal discount), and 2) A short list of other exceptions. This page lists the few exceptions to the waiver offer.
How to apply
Processing of the APC waiver for SAGE Choice 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.
Article Publication Charges (APCs) for primary research and review articles published by corresponding authors affiliated with Dalhousie University will be covered as part of CRKN's agreement with Wiley for 2023 and 2024. To qualify, articles must be published open access in a hybrid journal and must have been accepted on or after January 1, 2023.
How to apply
Eligible corresponding authors should use their Dalhousie email address when submitting their article. You may need to update your Wiley profile to do so. Personal email addresses (e.g. Hotmail, Gmail) or email addresses for non-CRKN institutions should not be used. Authors should also specify Dalhousie University when asked to declare affiliation during the Wiley Author Services process.
Dalhousie-affiliated authors are eligible for a flat discount of $250 USD when submitting an article for publishing.
What journals are eligible?
ACS has large list of publications, including a mix of subscription based journals as well as a selection of open access only journals. Here is a list of all ACS journals with open access options.
How to apply
APC discount is applied upon submission of manuscript. Authors must identify their institutional affiliation in order to qualify for the discount.
Dalhousie-affiliated authors are eligible for a 15% discount on processing fees when submitting an article for publication through Biomed Central journals.
What journals are eligible?
Discount applies to fully Open Access journal only (hybrid journals are not included) and SpringerOpen titles.
How to apply
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.
Dalhousie University has an institutional fellowship with BMJ Case Reports. This means that you will not be expected to pay any fellowship fees if you choose to submit an article to be featured in their journal. Note that this does NOT include Open Access fees, which are an additional charge.
Who is eligible?
Dalhousie-affiliated faculty, students, and staff are all eligible for this discount should their article be accepted for publication.
How to apply
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.
Dalhousie-affiliated authors are eligible to publish for free in the following journals:
Dalhousie-affiliated authors are also eligible to receive a 25% discount on publishing fees for all CSP Hybrid Journals.
What journals are eligible?
The five journals listed above are eligible to for free publishing, and all CSP hybrid journals are eligible for a 25% publishing discount. Please note that CSP Gold OA journals (FACETS, Arctic Science, and Drone Systems and Applications) are not eligible for free or discounted publishing under this agreement.
How to apply
APC discount is applied upon submission of manuscript. Authors must identify their institutional affiliation in order to qualify for the discount.
A 20% discount is offered to Corresponding Authors from Dalhousie University.
What journals are eligible?
Most Elsevier Gold Open Access journals, a full list can be found in the CRKN agreement
How to apply
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, Corresponding Authors may publish an article open access subject to a discount on the article publishing charge of 20% based on the list price found at https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/pricing/journals Applies to articles submitted between period beginning 1 January 2024 until and including 31 December 2026.
Dalhousie-affiliated authors will receive a 15% discount when publishing open access with the Royal Society of Chemistry.
What journals are eligible?
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RCS) has a number of eligible journals including diamond open access, gold open access, and hybrid journals. A full list of RCS open access journals is available on their website.
How to apply
The APC discount process is entirely automatic, following the steps outlined here:
Dalhousie-affiliated authors receive 40% discount on APCs in SAGE’s gold open access journals.
What journals are eligible?
This agreement applies to SAGE gold open access journals. See the title list of participating gold journals.
How to apply
Processing of the APC 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.
Dalhousie-affiliated authors will receive a 15% discount on processing fees when publishing with SpringerOpen.
What journals are eligible?
Applies to SpringerOpen titles only, not hybrid/subscription titles. There is a full list of open access journals on the SpringerOpen website.
How to apply
Author eligibility will be confirmed manually. Please use your Dalhousie email address when submitting to avoid delays.
Dalhousie-affiliated authors will receive a 25% discount on processing fees when publishing with Taylor & Francis Open Select.
What journals are eligible?
The extensive list of T&F Open Select journals are eligible for this agreement.
How to apply
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.