Support for Open Access Resources and Publishing
Open Access Publishing
The University Libraries and consortial partners negotiate directly with publishers to enable open access publishing agreements that benefit researchers at our campus and promote open scholarly communication globally, in keeping with our licensing priorities. Open Access (OA) means that anyone in the world can find, read and share your research.
Quickly get discipline-specific recommendations via our OA Funding Recommender.
We also directly support publication of open monographs (CU Boulder Open Monograph Fund) and open articles (Open Access Fund).
Please contact Scholarly Communication Librarian Melissa Cantrell (melissa.cantrell@colorado.edu) with any questions about these agreements, or about University Libraries' programs and services in support of Open Access.
Open Access Resources
We support or contribute to the following Open Access resources:
- ArXiv – Subject repository for Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics, sponsored by Cornell University
- DOAJ - The Directory of Open Access Journals, an independent database containing over 15,000 peer-reviewed open access journals
- Independent Voices (CRL/Reveal Digital) – Open Access collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines, and journals
- Knowledge Unlatched – Free scholarly content (including books and journals) in all subject areas
- MDPI – Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, an open access academic publisher
- PeerJ – Peer-reviewed & Open Access journal publishing primary research and reviews in biology, life sciences, environmental sciences, and medicine.
- SCOAP3 – Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics
- SPARC – A global coalition promoting open access, open education, and open data
Please let us know if there are other Open Access resources the Libraries should support.
Association for Computing Machinery – no cost to you
If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access – at no cost to you – in any ACM Digital Library publication venue through an agreement with the University of Colorado.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under CU’s agreement with ACM:
- Original research to be published in the ACM Digital Library
- This includes ACM's entire publication portfolio of journals, magazines, conference proceedings, newsletters, websites, and multimedia files, whose contents are listed at The ACM Full-Text Collection
- ACM books are excluded from the agreement
- Corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
- To benefit from this agreement, use your CU Boulder institutional email when submitting your work to ACM
Process
If your publication is eligible based on the criteria above, you will be directed to fill out an eRights form for ACM, which will have three steps:
- Rights granted to ACM: You will have three options for rights you want to grant to ACM. The first two options will allow you to retain copyright over the published work, while the third option - a transfer of copyright - will not
- Select a license: Select a Creative Commons license and permissions preferences, or select one of the alternate licenses provided
- Permission to publish: complete eRights by providing ACM permission to publish your work Open Access
Cambridge University Press – no cost to you
If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access – at no cost to you – in gold and hybrid journals at Cambridge University Press through an agreement with Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries to support Open Access (OA) publishing.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under the Alliance’s agreement with Cambridge University Press:
- Original research
- Eligible article types: research articles, review articles, rapid communications, brief reports and case reports
- Corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
- Accepted for publication in a Cambridge University Press journal covered by the agreement - list of eligible journals (.xlsx file)
Process
- If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, you will have the option to complete and submit the journal’s OA author publishing agreement and select the creative commons licence which will determine how readers can use your article.
- We will confirm your eligibility and pay the Article Processing Charge (APC) to make your article Open Access.
Company of Biologists – no cost to you
If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access – at no cost to you – in all Company of Biologists journals through the University of Colorado Boulder’s agreement with the publisher.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under CU Boulder’s agreement with the Company of Biologists:
- Corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
- Accepted for publication in any journal published by Company of Biologists
Process
- If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, Company of Biologists will notify you to let you know of your eligibility for institutional support to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) under this agreement.
Elsevier – 10% APC Discount
If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access - with a 10% discount on Article Processing Charges (APCs) - through the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries’ agreement with Elsevier to support discounts for Open Access publishing.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under CU Boulder’s agreement with Elsevier:
- Corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder or Alliance member institutions
- Published in core hybrid and gold OA journals
Process
If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, no additional steps are required. You will receive an email notification once the 10% discount has been approved.
Frontiers – no cost to you (limited funds)
If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access – at no cost to you – in all Frontiers journals through the University of Colorado Boulder membership with Frontiers to support Open Access publishing. Eligible articles will be funded on a first-come, first-served basis until available funds are exhausted. Contact oafund@colorado.edu with questions.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under the CU Boulder membership with Frontiers:
- Corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
- To benefit from this agreement, corresponding authors should use their institutional email and list CU Boulder as their affiliated institution when submitting an article
- Corresponding authors with accepted articles must verify the need to utilize the CU Boulder institutional membership in order to receive funding
Process
- If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, please select “University of Colorado Boulder” as the institutional payer in the invoice section when submitting your article.
- We will then confirm your eligibility after the article is accepted, and if confirmed, the publication charge will be paid by the Libraries.
IOPscience – no cost to you
If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access – at no cost to you – in all eligible IOPscience journals through the University of Colorado Boulder’s agreement to support Open Access publishing. IOP’s Open Access articles typically receive 70% higher downloads and 15% higher citations when compared with subscription access articles.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under CU Boulder’s agreement with IOPscience:
- Corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
- Accepted for publication in a journal covered by the agreement:
- First, visit Eligible Journals for Transformative Agreements
- Click on Go to IOPP Journal Finder
- Click on Select Institution and enter “University of Colorado Boulder”
Process
If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, IOPscience will notify you to let you know of your eligibility for institutional support to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) under this agreement and they will send you a copyright form to fill out and return.
PeerJ – no cost to you (limited funds)
If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access – at no cost to you – in all PeerJ journals through the University of Colorado Boulder membership to support Open Access publishing. Eligible articles will be funded on a first-come, first-served basis until available funds are exhausted. Contact oafund@colorado.edu with questions.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under the CU Boulder membership with PeerJ:
- Corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
- To benefit from this agreement, corresponding authors should use their institutional email and list CU Boulder as their affiliated institution when submitting an article
Process
If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, PeerJ initiates an automated process to confirm your institutional affiliation and generate payment of your article processing charge from our membership agreement.
PLOS – no cost to you
If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access – at no cost to you – in all 12 PLOS titles with no Article Processing Charges (APCs) as part of an agreement between PLOS and the Center for Research Libraries allowing for unlimited publishing.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under the CU Boulder agreement with PLOS:
- Corresponding authors affiliated with CU Boulder
- In some cases, contributing authors (not the corresponding author) from CU Boulder are also eligible for a 25% discount on APCs for the following PLOS journals: PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation
- To take advantage of this agreement, make sure to use your "colorado.edu" email address and select "University of Colorado Boulder" from the dropdown list as your institutional affiliation
Process
- When prompted under "Publication Fees" (for most PLOS journals), select "My institution will fully or partially pay the fee…" and select "University of Colorado Boulder" from the dropdown list.
- PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation will automatically identify eligible authors via email address and institutional affiliation provided. These three journals also apply an automatic 25% discount on APCs when CU Boulder authors are contributing authors (not the corresponding author).
- If the corresponding author is from another PLOS partner institution, the APC will be covered by their institution.
The Royal Society – no cost to you
If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder you can publish your article Open Access – at no cost to you – in Royal Society journals covered under the agreement with the University of Colorado Boulder to support Open Access publishing.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under CU's agreement with the Royal Society:
- Submitted for publication in one of the following journals:
- Biology Letters
- Interface Focus
- Journal of the Royal Society Interface
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
- Proceedings of the Royal Society A
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B
- Open Biology
- Royal Society Open Science
- Corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
- To benefit from this agreement, corresponding authors should use their institutional email and list CU Boulder as their affiliated institution when submitting an article
Process
If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, complete the following:
- Once the article is accepted, opt to publish it Open Access.
- Select the "Read and Publish model" option from the list. This selection will enable the Royal Society to recognize you and the relevant discount will be applied.
The Royal Society of Chemistry – no cost to you
If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder you can publish your article Open Access – at no cost to you – in Royal Society of Chemistry journals covered under the agreement with the Greater Western Library Alliance to support Open Access publishing.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under CU's agreement with the Royal Society:
- Corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
- To benefit from this agreement, corresponding authors should use their institutional email and list CU Boulder as their affiliated institution when submitting an article
- Accepted for publication in a Gold Open Access publication from the Royal Society of Chemistry
Process
If your article is eligible based on the criteria above:
- If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, your article will automatically be published open access under this agreement
- The Royal Society of Chemistry provides an option to opt out of open access
SAGE Publishing – 10% APC Discount
If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access – with a 10% discount on article processing charges (APCs) – in gold (fully) open access journals at SAGE through an agreement with Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries to support Open Access publishing.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under the Alliance’s agreement with SAGE Publishing:
- Corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
- Accepted to one of 181 gold, “fully” Open Access SAGE journal titles
Process
If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, the 10% discount will be automatically applied and you will be contacted to pay the APC once your paper enters production (Note: If another greater discount has been earned, only the largest discount applicable will be applied).