UConn Funding for Authors
Authors are sometimes asked to pay article processing charges (APCs) to publish books or articles on an open access basis. To cover these fees, UConn-affiliated faculty researchers are encouraged to apply for Scholarship Facilitation Fund awards from the University’s Office of the Vice President for Research (currently paused for FY26).
The UConn Library does not provide direct funding to cover these fees.
Discounts for Authors
Thanks to agreements with these publishers, UConn-affiliated corresponding authors are entitled to receive automatic discounts on article processing charges (APCs). To take advantage of these discounts, please use your @uconn.edu email address when submitting your work to the publishers.
- Cambridge University Press. For 2025, UConn has an open access agreement in place with Cambridge that provides us a limited number of waivers on a first come first serve basis. Our priority is to support authors publishing in fully open access/Gold journals.
- Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). UConn has an existing agreement that covers the cost of unlimited APCs for authors that wish to publish in any RSC journal.
- MDPI. 10% discount. UConn participates in MDPI's Institutional Open Access Program.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an article processing charge (APC)?
An article processing charge, sometimes called a publication fee, is a fee charged by the publisher when an author would like to publish open access in a hybrid OA journal or a Gold OA journal.
How do I know if UConn Library has an agreement that allows me to publish open access without incurring an article processing charge?
UConn-affiliated corresponding authors are entitled to receive automatic discounts or waivers on article processing charges (APCs) for the publishers listed above in the Discounts for Authors section.
What is an article processing charge (APC) waiver?
An Article Processing Charge (APC) waiver is provided by a publisher to allow an author to publish open access without incurring article processing fees.
How can I request a waiver for article processing charges (APCs)?
Publishers may discount or waive article processing charges on the basis of financial need. Authors who lack grant or other funding should request a waiver. Policies vary by publisher. Authors generally should request a waiver at point of submission. The Royal Society is one of many publishers with flexible waiver policies.
How can I find an open access journal that does not require an article processing charge (APC)?
The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) offers a list of open access journals that do not require an article processing charge. Authors can filter this list by journal subject, language, country, peer review type, and other characteristics.
What is a Read and Publish (R&P) agreement (also referred to as a Transformative Agreement)?
A Read and Publish agreement, sometimes called a Transformative Agreement, is an agreement between a publisher and an institution that allows authors to publish their works open access without incurring an article processing charge (APC) and is typically dependent on the institution continuing with large packages of journal subscriptions.
Why doesn’t UConn Library have a Read and Publish agreement with commercial academic publishers (for example, Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Sage)?
Currently, most Read and Publish agreements require an institution to commit to subscribing to their “Big Deal” package (meaning all their publications) to be eligible to participate. Due to budget constraints we have unbundled all “Big Deal” packages as part of our Future of Journals project.
What is Subscribe to Open (S2O)?
Subscribe to Open is an agreement between a publisher and an institution in which the publisher uses subscription fees that the institution continues to pay on an annual basis to make their content open access. There is typically a goal amount that the publisher needs to collect through this program in order to make the content open access.
How are society publishers approaching publishing open access and article processing charges (APC)?
Unlike commercial publishers, society publishers have been exploring sustainable strategies to move towards more open access publishing without burdensome article processing charges (APCs). Most have elected to try out Subscribe to Open (S2O) agreements. In most cases, as long as the UConn Library continues to subscribe to a society’s journals, UConn authors may be eligible for a waiver or discount on their APC.
