Support for Open Access Funding
A brief guide to open access
At Salford, we are committed to a sustainable open access model, so we encourage researchers to make articles open access via the 'green' route: this means you deposit your author-accepted manuscript (AAM) in USIR when it's accepted, there's no APC to pay, and the article will be made openly available as soon as any embargo period required by your publisher ends. In many cases this will be the most suitable option and we can provide support and advice to help you decide where to publish. We also encourage you to look at our open access deals with publishers when choosing where to publish – details of these can be found below.
However, if it is important for your work to be made open access immediately upon publication (via the paid 'Gold' route) we do have some limited funding. You can apply to the UKRI and Institutional Open Access Funds - as soon as your research output has been accepted for publication or on submission for pure open access journals. The funds are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, subject to the eligibility criteria and ADRI approval. This guide will help you choose how to make your work open access.
If your research output is in a different format (e.g. a monograph, a chapter in an edited book, a performance or a patent) we recommend that you make your research output open access if you can. Some funders have open access requirements for monographs as well as articles, for example UKRI funded research. Email library-research@salford.ac.uk to check compliance and discuss your options.
Even if you choose not to make your output open access, you should create a record for your output in USIR and deposit the output or related files. USIR is the official collection of the University of Salford's research outputs, and it is important that the records reflect the diversity of research that is undertaken.
Publisher agreements
We have agreements with several academic journal publishers which reduce or remove the cost of publishing open access in their journals. The following deals are open to all current University of Salford affiliated research staff and postgraduate research students, though individual deals may specify that you must be the corresponding author in order to be eligible (please see eligibility details for individual deals listed below).
If given the option to select a licence, we recommend you select the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) license to maximise research dissemination and reuse. The CC BY licence is a requirement for UKRI funded research outputs.
Please note that additional publication charges, such as colour charges and page charges, are not included in these agreements. Authors should arrange alternative funding to cover these additional costs before committing to publish.
In accordance with JISC guidelines corresponding authors who are honorary, visiting or NHS members of staff without a contract of employment at the relevant institution will not normally be eligible to use an agreement. For more information please contact library-research@salford.ac.uk
Funder compliance – UKRI and Wellcome Trust
UKRI and Wellcome Trust funded researchers can publish with any of these publishers and comply with their funder open access requirements, provided your work is published with a CC BY licence. If you are considering publishing with another publisher, please email library-research@salford.ac.uk to discuss the open access compliance requirements.
| Publisher | Details | How to apply |
| American Chemical Society (Transitional agreement) | University of Salford corresponding authors are able to publish open access in all ACS hybrid and fully open access journals. See How to publish open access for more information. | Via publisher website – no need to apply |
| Cambridge University Press (Transitional agreement) | University of Salford corresponding authors are able to publish open access in the majority of CUP journals. See the Open access agreement for Jisc institutions for more information. | Via publisher website – no need to apply |
| Elsevier (Transitional agreement) | University of Salford corresponding authors are able to publish open access in Elsevier subscription journals. See the Open access agreement for Jisc institutions for more information. | Via publisher website – no need to apply |
| Frontiers (Pure open access publisher) | 10% discount available to submitting University of Salford authors. See Open Access with Frontiers for more information. | Use the online form |
| MDPI (Pure open access publisher) | 10% discount available to submitting University of Salford authors. See Open Access with MDPI for more information. | Use the online form |
| Microbiology Society (Transitional agreement) | University of Salford corresponding authors are able to publish open access in Microbiology Society journals. See Open Access with Microbiology Society for more information. | Via publisher website – no need to apply |
| PLOS (Pure open access publisher) | Note: the following are available for papers submitted after 1 April 2021.
University of Salford corresponding authors are able to publish open access in PLOS ONE, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS Digital Health and PLOS Genetics. See PLOS Flat Fee Agreement for more information. Salford also has a deal for PLOS Biology. See PLOS Community Action Publishing for more information and email library-research@salford.ac.uk if you are considering publishing with PLOS Biology. |
Via publisher website – no need to apply |
| Sage (Transitional agreement) | University of Salford authors are able to publish open access in Sage subscription journals. See Open Access agreements at Sage for more information. | Via publisher website – no need to apply |
| Springer (Transitional agreement) | University of Salford authors are able to publish open access in Springer subscription journals that offer the Open Choice option without having to pay an APC. See the UK Read and Publish (Springer Compact) agreement for a full list of titles. Note: The Springer agreement does not cover journals published by Nature, who continue to charge open access fees for their titles. | Via publisher website – no need to apply |
| Taylor & Francis (Transitional agreement) | University of Salford corresponding authors are able to publish open access in T&F hybrid (subscription) journals. See the Open access agreement for Jisc institutions for more information. | Via publisher website – no need to apply |
| Wiley (Transitional agreement) |
University of Salford corresponding authors are able to publish open access in any of Wiley's and Hindawi's fully gold open access journals and Wiley’s hybrid (subscription-based) journals. See the Open access agreement for Jisc institutions for more information. |
Via publisher website – no need to apply |
Apply for Open Access funding
Institutional Open Access Fund
Before applying for open access funding you should check that there is not an equivalent free open access option for your output, for example a journal that is part of a publisher agreement or a journal which does not charge a fee to publish. Please contact the Library by emailing library-research@salford.ac.uk to discuss your options prior to applying for funding.
Applications will be checked by the Library and open access funding decisions will be made by the appropriate Associate Dean Research & Innovation (ADRI), subject to the availability of funds.
Applicants should apply for funding on submission of the article to ensure there is time to make alterative arrangements if funding is not available.
Subject to available funds and meeting the eligibility criteria, the Institutional Open Access fund will pay up to the full open access cost plus any applicable VAT on your behalf. If you are submitting to a pure open access journal apply for funding on submission of your article to ensure there is time to make alterative arrangements if funding is not available.
We will only support applications for credible open access journals. Authors should run a quick 'think, check, submit' credibility check before applying or contact the Library for advice.
If your research has been impacted by your protected characteristics or personal circumstances and would benefit from receiving open access funding to increase its reach and impact, please email the Library or your ADRI with the details to support your application.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for funding at least one of the article's authors must be a current member of University of Salford academic staff or postgraduate research student (PGR) and meet at least one of the following criteria.
- Your research is expected to be included in Salford's REF submission and assessed as 3* or 4* quality
- Your research needs to be openly and immediately available in order to achieve its potential impact by being accessible to a non-academic audience (e.g. schoolteachers, health professionals, industry leaders)
- You do not have any other free to publish options (for example your discipline is not covered by our publisher agreements) and so you must publish in a journal which charges a fee to publish
Applications from emeritus or associate appointments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Honorary appointments are not eligible for funding.
Priority will be given to pure open access journals and the fund is not intended for the use of hybrid, where the green self-archiving route is available for open access.
UKRI open access fund
Our UKRI fund supports open access for any articles which acknowledge UKRI funding and can be published via gold open access with a CC-BY licence. Subject to available funds, the UKRI open access fund will pay up to the full cost of the APC plus any applicable VAT on your behalf.
Open Access Monographs
Books and monographs benefit from open access in many of the same ways as articles. There has been much more progress to date making articles open access as standard but as funder open access policies respond to Plan S there is increased momentum to make publicly funded monographs open access. However, there are barriers: books operate on a much longer time scale than articles; publisher processes for managing open access monographs are in their infancy; there is a perceived prestige of publishing with established publishers using traditional publishing models and open access costs can be prohibitive. There are also additional copyright considerations, for example the use of third-party copyright and the impact of adapted works such as translations.
The UKRI's open access policy requires that monographs published on or after 1 January 2024 should be available open access, with a creative commons licence, within a maximum of 12 months of publication. The next REF open access policy is likely to include a similar requirement for monographs.
The University is keen to support authors to make their monographs open access and meet funder requirements, and ensuring our investment reflects the University of Salford’s current and future research and teaching needs.
We therefore recommend that authors, and research leads approving applications for open access funding, consider the following:
- Choose a publisher which does not charge a Book Processing Charge (BPC). The OA Books toolkit describes the different publishing models available with suggested publishers.
- Embargoes on open access should not exceed 12 months.
- Consider green open access by self-archiving in USIR. Most publishers do not currently allow the whole book to be made open access, but many will allow the accepted version of an individual chapter to be made open access.
- A CC BY licence is preferred as the least restrictive licence, but authors should consider carefully if a more restrictive licence is required. The Creative Commons Licence Chooser can help authors choose the correct licence for their work.
- Explore different funding options. The OA Books toolkit provides a list of funding sources for open access books.
If you are interested in publishing your monograph open access, please email Wendy Taylor, Scholarly Communications Librarian, at library-research@salford.ac.uk to discuss your options, before making any decisions or agreements with publishers.