All UC ANR authors eligible for systemwide funds to cover open-access publishing fees

In the past year, UC has announced several agreements with major publishers of scholarly journals, including Elsevier and Springer Nature. These agreements include provisions for funding to cover the article processing charges (APCs) for open-access publication of articles in those publishers' journals. APCs would otherwise be borne by authors.  

Under the agreements, UC campus libraries all contribute to a systemwide fund to cover the APCs.

This message is to clarify that all UC ANR personnel – advisors, specialists, academic coordinators and all staff – are eligible for funding for open-access article processing charges under these agreements.

Here's how the process works: After acceptance of an article in one of the journals covered by the agreements, the corresponding author will see the default open-access option in the publishing workflow. If the author chooses open access, the systemwide fund will automatically cover the first $1,000 of the APC to the publisher. APCs are typically greater than $1,000. If the author has research funding to cover the remaining APC, those research funds will be used to cover the balance. If the author does not have research funding to cover the remaining open access fee, the systemwide fund will cover the balance. 

Here's a link to a comprehensive FAQ about the Elsevier agreement, which takes effect April 1. The agreement also restores and expands online access for UC personnel to Elsevier's paywalled journal content.

The Springer Nature agreement went into effect in January -- here's information on that agreement.

And here's a page with information on all the other similar agreements with journal publishers.

The UC Davis Open Access Publishing site is a good resource for general questions about open access publishing. 

I can also help answer your questions. You can reach me at jdowning@ucanr.edu. 

Jim Downing
Director of Publishing 

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