National Deals for APCs

ACM Open

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2023 — 31 Dec 2025

ACM OPEN, the new IReL-ACM agreement continues to provide access to ACM Digital Library, in addition to enabling University of Galway corresponding authors to publish their scholarly articles with ACM on an Open Access basis without needing to pay article processing charges (APC).

How does the agreement work?

• You need to be the corresponding author and be affiliated to University of Galway (or one of the other participating institutions) at the time of acceptance.  In the article submission process you must correctly identify your institution and you must use your institutional email address, not addresses from other domains. For example: you should use myname@universityofgalway.ie, not myname@adapt.ie or myname@gmail.com.
• You need to choose the option Institutionally Paid Open Access (CC-BY open access) to benefit from the agreement.

Further information:

• ACM Author Submission Guidelines
• License Agreement
• Agreement Details on ESAC 
• ACM Press Release
• Submitting Articles to ACM Journals
  

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Update August 2024: Funding for open access publishing in ACS may run out in December 2024.  If this occurs IReL funding for open access publishing will not be offered to authors for the remainder of 2024.

Agreement period: 1 January 2021 – 31 December 2025

Where the corresponding author is a current staff member or student of University of Galway at the time an article is accepted for publication in an ACS journal, the author will be invited to publish the article open access at no extra cost.

The agreement covers all peer reviewed articles accepted for publication in any ACS journal. 

Important: During submission use an affiliated university email extension address and select University of Galway as your institution

More information on how to Publish Open Access for authors on ACS website >

American Institute of Physics (AIP)

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2023 — 31 Dec 2025

 This agreement with the American Institute of Physics (AIP) will allow accepted articles from selected hybrid journals University of Galway corresponding authors to be immediately Open Access upon publication. Articles will be shared under a CC-BY license and authors will retain copyright. This agreement is limited to a certain number of articles we can publish per year across the IReL consortium. 

AIP has published Read & Publish Author Guidelines. There is also a Guide for Authors PDF. This should be a straightforward process where you as an author need to check the correct affiliation in order to benefit from the agreement with AIP. Eligible article types are: primary research article, review article, perspective article, tutorial article.

American Psychological Association (APA)

Agreement period: 1 Aug 2022 – 31 Dec 2024

Update October 2024:  The IReL Negotiations Group have agreed that the PsychArticles Read & Publish agreement will not be renewed from January 2025. 

 This agreement with the American Psychological Association (APA) provides University of Galway corresponding authors the ability to make their APA articles open access without the author paying an article processing charge (APC).

Eligible types of publications are Journal Article, Editorial, Interview. More information on the IReL website.

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2022 — 31 Dec 2024

University of Galway is participating in Annual Reviews’ “Subscribe to Open” initiative which will make all articles published in the five pilot journals OA from 2020, regardless of the author’s affiliation. 

BMJ

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2024 – 31 Dec 2026

University of Galway corresponding authors can publish original research Open Access upon publication at no extra cost in BMJ Hybrid Journals (34 journals).

More information from IReL and from BMJ. See also this FAQ from BMJ. BMJ's helpdesk is available at openaccess@bmj.com if you need further assistance and BMJ provides general information on its Author Hub.

Cambridge University Press

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2021 – 31 Dec 2025

This agreement provides unlimited Open Access publishing of University of Galway affiliated corresponding authors to the following:

• Almost all CUP hybrid and fully open access journals. A small number of journals may either not offer OA or may require authors to transfer copyright. 
• Eligible article types: a research, case report, brief report, review or rapid communications format article. 

Further information can be found on the publisher page. 

Cell Press

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2024-31 Dec 2026

The deal entitles eligible authors to open access publishing without paying article processing charges in all hybrid Cell Press Journals.  Further details available here: https://irel.ie/open-access/cell-press/

The Company of Biologists

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2023 — 31 Dec 2025

The Company of Biologists Read and Publish agreement 2020-2022, provides access to three journals  

• Development
• Journal of Cell Science
• Journal of Experimental Biology

It enables all eligible University of Galway corresponding authors to publish Open Access articles in these leading biological science journals, without needing to pay article processing charges (APC’s).

How does the agreement work?

•  Corresponding authors should use their institutional email address to ensure they are identified and processed correctly: for example they should use myname@universityofgalway.ie, not myname@adapt.ie or myname@gmail.com.
• At acceptance, the corresponding author will be sent a licence agreement, which includes details of the CC-BY licence option.
• Where open access is confirmed, the institution name and corresponding Ringgold ID will identify the author as eligible for an APC waiver. Corresponding authors will be emailed an APC payment link (via RightsLink) displaying the waived fee and will see a link to request approval by their institution. Authors will be asked to register with the RightsLink site in order to complete the transaction.

Electrochemical Society

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2023 – 31 Dec 2025

Corresponding authors from University of Galway may publish unlimited Open Access in ECS journals (Journal of The Electrochemical Society and ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology) without charge.

At the time of manuscript submission, authors must select ECS Plus under Step 6 – Open Access Waivers, Charges and Credits to take advantage of an article credit. Please consult this PDF for more information.

Elsevier (Science Direct)

(Please see details of new deal with Cell Press above) 

Update (October, 2024): Funding for open access publishing in Elsevier titles has run out for 2024.  IReL funded OA will not be offered to authors for the remainder of 2024. 

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2023 – 31 Dec 2025. 

The Irish ScienceDirect agreement gives participating institutions continued read-access to the Elsevier’s Freedom Collection of journals and allows corresponding authors from member institutions to publish articles open access in over two thousand Elsevier journals without publication charges. The agreement will allow an estimated 71% of articles by eligible authors in the relevant Elsevier journals to be Open Access immediately on publication for each year of the agreement.

All Irish authors with Elsevier will continue to be able to post copies of their articles to their institutions Open Access institutional repositories such as University of Galway Research Repository.

Please note that invitation to publish OA via this agreement is subject to approval by the Library, and the number of included OA publications under this deal is limited.

How does the agreement work?

• Once your article is accepted for publication (i.e. post peer review) the corresponding author will receive an email from Elsevier which will take you to the “author journey” (a 5-step wizard). Step 4 will present you with Publishing Options. Choose Gold Open Access and an appropriate licence in Step 5. More details can be found in this presentation: Elsevier Author Journey.
• The deal is available to corresponding authors who are active University of Galway members at the time of acceptance.
• What journals are included? You can check if the journal you are interested in is included in the deal by this checker tool (which you can use to browse disciplines).
• Are there enough "free" APCs for all authors? University of Galway has a limited number of Author Processing Charges (APCs) that are included in this deal. The Library will be monitoring every month how many are used, so we will be able to give University of Galway authors plenty of warning if we are likely to run out.
• The deal with Elsevier will provide you with the following open access licenses: CC-BY and the more restrictive CC-BY-NC-ND. Please check if your funding body requires a specific license. (e.g. SFI). Unless there are specific circumstances we recommend using the more open CC-BY licence.
• Questions: If you have questions regarding the Elsevier process, your affiliation needs to be amended or other queries please write to support@elsevier.com.

Further information:

• Details of the agreement on elsevier.com
• Details of the agreement on ESAC registry of transformative agreements

Emerald

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2024 – 31 December 2026

The agreement allows corresponding authors from University of Galway to publish original research and review articles Open Access upon publication at no extra cost.  All Emerald journals are included in this agreement (hybrid and fully Open Access).

More information on the IReL website and from Emerald.

IEEE

Agreement period: 1 January 2024 – 31 December 2026

The agreement allows corresponding authors from University of Galway to publish articles Open Access upon publication at no extra cost. All types of articles are included.

All IEEE journals (hybrid and fully open access journals) are covered by the agreement.

There is a maximum number of included APCs available for the consortium IReL which will be allocated across the consortium participating institutions on a first-com-first-served basis. More information on the IReL website.

Institute of Physics

Agreement period: 1 January 2021 – 31 December 2024

The agreement allows corresponding authors from University of Galway to publish original research and review articles open access upon publication at no extra cost.

What journals are eligible? IOP hybrid journals (subscription journals which include Open Access content). Eligible article types are papers, special issue papers, reviews and letters. Please note that Gold Open Access journals are not currently included, and please also note that while the Article Publication Charge (APC) is covered, page charges or publication fees unrelated to Open Access are not included.

More details can be found on the IOP Publishing website on this transformative agreement for Irish researchers. 

John Benjamins

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2023 – 31 Dec 2023

This is a local agreement between the University of Galway and John Benjamins Publishing Company. All articles submitted during the term of the agreement from eligible University of Galway corresponding authors will be published Open Access

Publish and Read details below:

• Unlimited Open Access: any article published in John Benjamins journals where the corresponding author affiliated with the University of Galway will be OA by default.  
• Eligible authors need to state affiliation with the University of Galway. Using institutional email adresses might be necessary to identify correct affiliation.

• Article types covered by agreement: research articles, reviews, and introductory articles.

  For further information please visit the publisher's website.

Microbiology Society

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2024 – 31 Dec 2026

 The Microbiology Society’s ’Publish and Read’ deal will allow University of Galway researchers to publish an unlimited number of open-access articles (OA) and provides unrestricted access to the Society’s journal portfolio. Publish and Read will be across all the Society’s six journals including Microbiology, Journal of General Virology, Journal of Medical Microbiology, Microbial Genomics, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology and Access Microbiology.

Publish and Read details below:

• Unlimited Open Access: any article published in Society journals where the corresponding author is from a Publish and Read institution will be OA by default.  
• Unlimited usage: Any user associated with a Publish and Read institution can access the entire archive of Society content, back to 1947, for reading and for text and data mining.
• Any article published where the corresponding author is from University of Galway will be Open Access with a CC-BY-license by default. Corresponding authors will be identified using their email address, so please use your University of Galway email. Because there is no limit to the number of articles included in the deal, there is no need to request a purchase order or receive an invoice.

For further information please visit the Microbiology Society website.

Optica Publishing Group (OPG)

Update (November, 2024):  IReL are projecting that open access funding for OPG journals will run out in late  November.  Once that occurs, IReL funded OA will not be offered to authors for the remainder of 2024.  

Agreement period: January 2022 – December 2024

This agreement includes the  ability to make articles accepted for publication in eligible Optica Publishing Group journals Open Access, without the author paying an article processing charge (APC) (see the IReL website for eligible titles).

This agreement is capped to an annual maximum number of articles where authors can publish Open Access without a fee.

More information also on the OPG website.

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2024 – 31 Dec 2026

The OUP agreement allows eligible corresponding authors at University of Galway to publish original research and review articles open access upon publication at no extra cost.

What journals are included in the deal and how does it work?

• All OUP published hybrid journals (subscription journals which include open access content). You can have a look at the OUP Title list (Excel file). OUP's fully OA journals are not offered free OA publishing under the IReL OA agreement. We have a limited quota per year where we can support OA fees.
• Eligible corresponding University of Galway authors will be invited by OUP to make their articles Open Access on acceptance. You will go through a four-step process that is explained on this OUP site.

Please note that invitation to publish OA via this agreement is subject to approval by the Library, and the number of included OA publications under this deal is limited.

For further information please visit the OUP Open Access Account User Guide.

PLOS

Agreement period: 1 February 2022 to 31 December 2024

This agreement allows corresponding authors from University of Galway to publish unlimited OA articles without APCs in the following journals: 

• PLOS Digital Health
• PLOS ONE
• PLOS Computational Biology
• PLOS Pathogens
• PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
• PLOS Genetics
• PLOS Complex Systems

PLOS journals excluded from the agreement: PLOS Climate, PLOS Global Public Health, PLOS Water, PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation. 

Corresponding authors must be a current staff member or student with University of Galway. In the article submission process you must correctly identify University of Galway as your affiliation.

More detailed information can be found on the IReL website.  PLOS has published a useful Flat Fee Author Guide to Submission.

RUP (Rockefeller University Press)

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2022 – 31 Dec 2024

This agreement allows corresponding authors from University of Galway to publish unlimited OA articles without APCs in these titles:

• Journal of Cell Biology (Online ISSN 1540-8140)
• Journal of Experimental Medicine (Online ISSN 1540-9538)
• Journal of General Physiology (Online ISSN 1540-7748)

The corresponding author must be a current staff member or student of a University of Galway at the time the article is accepted for publication. More information can be found on the IReL website or via the publisher.

Royal Irish Academy

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2024 — 31 Dec 2026

This agreement allows corresponding authors from University of Galway to publish unlimited OA articles without APCs in the RIA’s six journals.

The corresponding author must be a current staff member or student of a University of Galway at the time the article is accepted for publication.

Royal Society

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2024 — 31 Dec 2026

The Royal Society Read and Publish Agreement enables University of Galway members who are  corresponding authors to publish open access articles in these titles: 

• Biology Letters                                                                       
• Interface Focus                                                          
• Journal of the Royal Society Interface                                  
• Notes and Records of the Royal Society                              
• 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

The Royal Society has provided straightforward publishing with Royal Society Read and Publish advice.

Royal Society of Chemistry

Update (October, 2024): Open access funding for RSC journals has run out for 2024.  IReL funding for open access publishing will not be offered to authors for the remainder of 2024.   

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2022 to 31 Dec 2024

This agreement allows corresponding authors from University of Galway to publish Open Access articles without APCs in any of the journals RSC class as hybrid (all journals except gold open access journals). All research articles and review papers are covered by the agreement.

Eligible are corresponding authors with an active University of Galway affiliation at the time of acceptance.

Please note this agreement has an annual quota. It is estimated that the RSC agreement will cover a projected 50%-60% of participating members output per year. Authors who are not offered OA under this agreement have other options for making their works Open Access e.g. uploading a copy of your manuscript to ARAN, University of Galway's institutional repository.

Please find more information on the RSC's Read & Publish website.

SAGE

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2024 — 31 Dec 2026

The Read and Publish agreement with SAGE allows corresponding authors who are member of University of Galway the following benefits:

• Subscription journals: In SAGE Choice hybrid journals (subscription journals where some of the articles are open access) at no extra cost. Charges other than the author article process charge (APC) may still apply, please refer to individual journal submission guidelines. 
• Gold Open Access journals: With a 20% article processing charge (APC) discount in most SAGE Gold journals (fully open access journals). Click here for the participating Gold journal title list. This discount will be applied automatically in the SAGE Open Access Portal. 
• All participating journals can be searched on this spreadsheet provided by Sage.

SAGE have put together a useful information site detailing the agreement and how to benefit from this deal.

Please note that invitation to publish OA via this agreement is subject to approval by the Library, and the number of included OA publications under this deal is limited.

Springer

Update (September, 2024):  IReL open access funding has run out for Springer journals. IReL funded OA will not be offered to authors for the remainder of 2024.  

Agreement period: 1 Apr 2021 – 31 Dec 2024

The agreement with Springer Compact means you can publish your article Open Access with the fees covered, in more than 2,000 Springer hybrid journals.

Which journals are included in the OA deal? You can view a list of included Springer journals on a downloadable spreadsheet provided by Springer on this website. Please note that Open Access publication via this agreement is only available for journals on the list.

Who is eligible for the deal? University of Galway corresponding authors (or corresponding authors from other IReL participating members)

Which article types are covered by this agreement?

• Original Paper: Standard article, usually presenting new results; articles published under this article type may also be referred to as Original Research, Original Article, Original Paper or Research Paper.
• Brief Communication: Short article submitted for rapid publication that exhibits the same structure as a standard article.
• Continuing Education: Article forming integral part of further education (usually medical)

Please note that invitation to publish OA via this agreement is subject to approval by the Library, and the number of included OA publications under this deal is limited.

Find out more on the Springer resources page for authors. You can also get in touch with Springer via email: oa.verification@springer.com.

Taylor & Francis

Update (September, 2024):  IReL open access funding for T&F journals has run out.  IReL funded OA will not be offered to authors for the remainder of 2024.  

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2024 – 31 Dec 2026

The IReL agreement with Taylor & Francis allows eligible corresponding authors from University of Galway to publish articles open access upon publication at no extra cost. Please take note of the Journals being included in the agreement and which are not. Please also be aware that the scope of this deal is limited, i.e. it will most likely not be possible to fund all requests from eligible authors.

• Eligible journals for OA publishing: over 1,900 T&F Open Select journals (hybrid journals).
• Excluded journals, not available for OA publishing in the agreement are:
  • These Open Select journals
  • Fully open access (Gold) journals
  • Certain journals are excluded from OA publishing under the agreement: Premium APC Open Select journals

Eligible authors must be a current staff or student of University of Galway at the time the article is accepted for publication. You will get offered the Open Access option (with no cost to you) if available after the acceptance of your publication. Only original research papers are covered by the agreement.

Please note that invitation to publish OA via this agreement is subject to approval by the Library, and the number of included OA publications under this deal is limited.

More information on the workflow for authors can be found on the publisher's website.

Wiley

Update (September 2024):  IReL funding for fully-OA/Gold Wiley journals has run out.  IReL funded OA will not be offered to authors for the remainder of 2024.   IReL projects that the fund for Wiley hybrid journals will not run out in 2024.

Agreement period: 1 Jan 2021 – 31 Dec 2024.

Deal details:

• The 4 year Wiley agreement allows University of Galway affiliated corresponding authors in participating institutions to publish articles Open Access upon publication at no extra cost.
• Eligible titles: almost all Wiley hybrid and gold titles, with the exception of a small number of subscription-only journals.
• Eligible authors: current staff and students of a participating member at the time of article acceptance.

• Licences: Wiley will provide you with a choice of Creative Commons licences: CC-BY, CC-BY-NC and CC-BY-NC-ND. Please check if your funding body requires a specific license (e.g. SFI). Unless there are specific circumstances we recommend using the more open CC-BY licence.

Please note that invitation to publish OA via this agreement is subject to approval by the Library, and the number of included OA publications under this deal is limited.

Further information:

• Information site by Wiley for Irish authors including a step-by-step guide.
• Information on the deal with Wiley by the Irish consortium IReL.
• Short video by Wiley explaining the OA deal.