Open access publishing
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More information on Open access publishing
UPDATE: With reference to the Springer contract, it is reported that, based on consumption and forecasts, it is reasonable to assume that the APCs under the Open Access contract until 30 June 2025 will end towards the end of May.
UPDATE: Negotiations with the publisher ACS - American Chemical Society for the renewal of the contract, which expired on 31/12/2023, have not yet come to a conclusion, although economic and supply conditions have been agreed upon that are deemed satisfactory by the negotiating team.
For 2025, pending the definition of the new contract, ACS decided to reactivate the open access publication procedure.
As a result, CRUI agreed to process the requests received on the platform for open access publication, with validation by the venues in terms of checking affiliations.
UPDATE: The IEEE publisher has informed CARE-CRUI that, as of 1 January 2025, there will be no continuation of the workflow for OA publication in IEEE journals and therefore, as of that date, there will no longer be OA fund coverage. This fund will only provide coverage for articles accepted for publication by 31/12/2024.
UPDATE: Publisher Elsevier has announced that as of 1 January 2025, the 15% discount for publication in Gold OA journals will no longer be available.
You are therefore advised NOT to submit articles to Elsevier's Gold Open Access journals, but to focus, if scientifically possible, on Elsevier's or other publishers' hybrid journals for which the coverage is still very high.
The University of Florence has joined the transformative contracts signed in Italy by Care-Crui with the publishers ACM, AIP, BMJ, Cambridge University Press, De Gruyter, Elsevier, Emerald, IOP, Oxford UNiversity Press, RSC, Springer and Wiley, with the formula “Read and Publish”, in addition to an international project, SCOAP3, which is also aimed at allowing open access (OA) publications without money contributions from the authors.
It also joined Frontiers' Institutional Program, which allows a 10% discount on APCs for publishing in open access. The Biomedical Library has also signed a transformative agreement with the publisher The Company of Biologists under the "Read and Publish" formula.
According to the economic model of the transformative agreements, the expenditure incurred by academic institutions for the consultation of scientific journals is also extended to cover open access publishing (read & publish) by authors affiliated with such institutions, therefore they are no longer required to pay the so-called APCs (Article processing charge).
The OA option only applies to hybrid journals, that is to journals that publish with closed access but provide for the payment of APC to provide free access to individual published articles, not to Gold Open Access journals, that is to say to journals that already provide free access to all articles and published content.
Exceptions are some contracts (e.g., Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, Emerald, IEEE, IOP), whereby the OA option applies to both fully open Access (Gold OA) and hybrid journals.
To be able to use the OA option, the corresponding author must belong to one of the following categories:
- Tenured teaching and research staff
- Fixed-term researchers
- Technical administrative staff
- PhD students
- Specialization schools students
- Research grant holders
The characteristics of the national transformative contracts signed in Italy by Care-Crui to which the University of Florence participates are summarized below according to each publisher.
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
The following Gold OA journals are NOT included in the agreement: AIP Advances, APL Bioengineering, APL Electronic Devices, APL Energy, APL Machine Learning, APL Materials, APL Photonics, APL Quantum, JASA Express Letters, Structural Dynamics, Matter and Radiation at Extremes e Nanotechnology and Precision Engineering.
Association for computing machinery (ACM)
The number of OA publications under the contract is unlimited.
They must also have signed the current publishing contract used by the Publisher to publish an open access article in the ACM Digital Library.
Articles will be published using the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence
For retrospective conversion of articles published on or after 1 May 2022, the Publisher will contact the authors directly.
Who bears the costs?: University Library System
British Medical Journals (BMJ)
The number of OA tokens (articles) set in the contract is unlimited with regard to Hybrid journals only.
There will be a free retrospective retrieval procedure for accepted articles published in Hybrid eligible journals from January 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.
Corresponding authors, after verification of their affiliation with UniFI, will be contacted by BMJ. The publisher will also directly provide reimbursement for APCs paid for articles published in OA.
Who bears the costs?: University Library System
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Duration of the contract: three-year (2023-2025)
Contract terms and conditions: the costs incurred by the University for the consultation of periodicals also cover those for open access publications by affiliated authors. It is possible to publish an unlimited number of articles in OA.
Accessible content: The CUP contract provides access to the titles of electronic periodicals included in the Cambridge Core Collection
Where to publish: All the authors affiliated to the University of Florence have the possibility to publish with open access in the journals, both hybrid and Gold Open Access, which are part of the Full Journal Package, according to the modalities and the details that can be consulted on the publisher's website
Open access management: to submit the article to the chosen journal, the corresponding author must correctly select the affiliation to Unifi and use their institutional email address (@unifi.it), indicating also, if possible, their own ORCID. After the peer review phase, the corresponding author is informed of the existence of an agreement with the University that allows publishing the article accepted in open access mode without additional costs to the authors and is invited to choose whether to publish in closed or open access mode (OA option).
Once this choice has been communicated to the publisher, the publisher ‘holds the article pending’ until it receives confirmation of the affiliation of the corresponding author by the University Library System; once the confirmation has been received, the process of publication of the article in OA mode is initiated, without additional costs.
Types of articles: Research articles, Review articles, Rapid communications, Brief reports and Case reports.
Book reviews, Discussions, Editorials, Introductions, Letters, Meeting reports and Proceedings are excluded.
Who bears the costs?: University Library System
The Company of Biologists
Duration of the contract: three years (01/01/2025-31/12/2027)
What the agreement provides: access to subscribed resources with the possibility for UniFI-affiliated Authors to publish scientific articles under an Open Access licence both in Hybrid and Gold OA journals published by the Publisher.
The number of OA tokens (articles) fixed in the contract is unlimited.
Accessible content: the contract foresees access to the full text content of the three hybrid journals (Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology) on the publisher's website.
Where you can publish: all authors affiliated with the University of Florence can publish under Open Access both in the three hybrid journals and in the two Gold Open Access journals (Disease Models & Mechanisms, Biology Open).
Open Access Management: CC BY 4.0 is set as the default licence.
OA articles will be entered into the normal workflow for approval by UniFI via the CCC Rightslink platform.
Types of articles eligible: Research Articles and others, varying by individual journal.
Who bears the costs?: Biomedical Library.
De Gruyter
Duration of the contract: three-year (2023-2025)
Contract terms and conditions: the costs incurred by the University for the consultation of periodicals also cover those for open access publications by affiliated authors. The number of OA tokens (articles) set in the contract does not provide for a pre-established distribution between the member institutions and it is not unlimited.
Accessible content: the contract provides access to the titles of electronic journals included in DeGruyter Online content – complete eJournal Package
Where to publish: All the authors affiliated with the University of Florence have the possibility to publish with open access in the hybrid journals, which are part of the complete eJournal Package, according to the modalities and the details that can be consulted on the publisher's website
Open access management: to submit the article to the chosen journal, the corresponding author must correctly select the affiliation to Unifi and use their institutional email address (@unifi.it), indicating also, if possible, their own ORCID. After the peer review phase, the corresponding author is informed of the existence of an agreement with the University that allows publishing the article accepted in open access mode without additional costs to the authors and is invited to choose whether to publish in closed or open access mode (OA option).
Once this choice has been communicated to the publisher, the publisher ‘holds the article pending’ until it receives confirmation of the affiliation of the corresponding author by the University Library System; once the confirmation has been received, the process of publication of the article in OA mode is initiated, without additional costs.
Types of articles: no restrictions
Who bears the costs?: University Library System
Elsevier
Contract terms and conditions: online access to the subscribed resources included in the ScienceDirect platform and the possibility for eligible Authors of the Institutions adhering to the contract to publish scientific articles under the Open Access licence without any additional financial contribution.
The number of publications in OA in the contract for hybrid journals has a limit for the first two years, while for the remaining three contractual years it is unlimited.
Accessible content: The agreement provides access through the Science Direct platform to more than 2,300 journals included in the UniFi subscriptions and in the Freedom Collection.
Cell Press Collection: UniFi has access to its historical subscriptions, represented by 8 titles (Biophysical Journal, Cell, Chem, Current Biology, Immunity, Molecular Cell, Neuron, The American Journal of Human Genetics).
Where to publish: all authors affiliated with the University of Florence have the possibility to publish in open access in over 1,800 Core Hybrid Journals.
It is also possible to publish articles in OA as part of the contract, on the 8 Cell Press hybrid journals subscribed by UniFi. The number of articles available for publication in the OA in Cell Press hybrid journals is limited to 55 each year nationwide.
Excluded collections and titles: Excluded from the possibility of publication in the OA are:
• journals of the Clinics collection which do not currently foresee publication in OA;
• the Lancet's collection of hybrid titles;
• about 300 titles defined as "ineligible", either because they do not foresee OA publication or because OA publication is supported by research or government entities.
Open access management: CC-BY 4.0 licence will be set as the default, but it will also be possible for authors to publish under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. For info on Creative Commons Licences
The identification and recognition flow of authors' affiliation will take place on the publisher's platform (EOAP Platform).
If Institution does not recognize the eligible author under the terms of the Crui-Elsevier agreement, the corresponding author will be offered the option to pay the APC outside the agreement or to publish under the standard licence.
Eligible item types: Full length articles, Review, Case Reports. From 1 January 2025, coinciding with the transition to unlimited for Hybrid securities, eligible items will also include Short Communications.
Who bears the costs?: University Library System
Emerald
Duration of the contract: one year (2025)
Contract terms and conditions: the costs incurred by the University for the consultation of periodicals also cover those for open access publications by affiliated authors. The number of OA tokens (articles) set out in the contract does not provide for a pre-established distribution between the participating institutions and is not unlimited.
Accessible content: The contract provides access to the titles of electronic journals included in the Subscribed collections (Accounting, Finance & Economics eJournal Collection, Business, Management and Strategy eJournal Collection, Engineering eJournal Collection, HR, Learning & Organization Studies eJournal Collection, Marketing eJournal Collection, Operations, Logistics & Quality eJournal Collection, Public Policy & Environmental Management eJournal Collection).
Where to publish: All authors affiliated with the University of Florence have the possibility to publish, with open access, in the hybrid journals subscribed and in the gold OA journals, through the Emerald Open Research platform.
Open access management: to submit the article to the chosen journal, the corresponding author must correctly select the affiliation to Unifi and use their institutional email address (@unifi.it), indicating also, if possible, their own ORCID. The article submission process is managed by the publisher with guidelines specific for each journal.
After the peer review phase, the corresponding author is informed of the existence of an agreement with the University that allows publishing the article accepted in open access mode without additional costs to the authors and is invited to choose whether to publish in closed or open access (OA option) mode.
Once this choice has been communicated to the publisher, the publisher ‘holds the article pending’ until it receives confirmation of the affiliation of the corresponding author by the University Library System; once the confirmation has been received, the process of publication of the article in OA mode is initiated, without additional costs.
Types of articles: no restrictions
Who bears the costs?: University Library System
Frontiers
What the agreement provides: The SBA has entered into the Institutional Partnership with Gold OA publisher Frontiers.
The agreement, effective 01/05/2023, provides Unifi-affiliated corresponding authors with a 10% discount on APC payments. The publication costs, although subsidized, are on individual corresponding authors and will be invoiced, depending on the indication given by the authors at the time of submission, to their Department of affiliation or to third parties outside Unifi.
In the latter case, it will not be possible to apply the 10% discount.
In the event that the 10% partnership discount and one of another kind are applied to an article (e.g. if an author's request for individual fee support is granted or a waiver is awarded by the journal) the resulting discounts will be cumulative.
It is recommended that the corresponding author use their institutional address (@unifi.it) when submitting to be identified as a Unifi-affiliated author.
Authors affiliated with Unifi are considered to be those belonging to the following categories:
- faculty members (with the exclusion of contract faculty)
- researchers
- technical-administrative staff
- doctoral students
- postgraduates research fellows.
Where you can publish: all authors affiliated with the University of Florence have the opportunity to publish in Open Access in all 209 journals published by Frontiers in different subject areas. Author's guide
Open Access Management: Authors of articles published in Open Access retain their copyright and grant the Publisher the right to publish such articles exclusively under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence that allows unlimited use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are cited.
Types of articles eligible: All (e.g., Original research, Systematic Review, Clinical Trial, Case Report ...). Category D articles (e.g., Editorial, Book Review ...) are not subject to APC payment.
Who bears the costs?: Unifi Departments
Institute of Physics (IOP)
Contract terms and conditions: online access to the IOP Science Extra journals available on the IOP platform and the ability to publish in open access, without any additional financial contribution, an unlimited number of articles in the hybrid and gold journals published by IOP.
Journals of the American Astronomical Society, which has adopted the gold model since 2022 but does not accept membership in IOP's transformative arrangements, will not participate in the contract.
Eligible articles will be those that have:
- a corresponding author affiliated with the University of Florence
- are manuscripts of the paper, special issue paper, review and/or letter type
- have been accepted by the Editor within the contractual terms (01/01/2023-31/12/2025).
Accessible content: The contract provides unlimited access to IOP Publishing's premium journal package of over 90 titles
Where to publish: All articles accepted for publication by corresponding authors affiliated with the University of Florence will be eligible for open access publication in almost all IOP Publishing journals. The Crui-Iop agreement covers hybrid and gold journals on the A, B and D lists
Open Access Management: Authors of articles published in Open Access retain their copyright and grant the Publisher the right to publish such articles preferably under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence, but exceptions are possible.
The workflow of Open Access publication is very essential:
- for eligible articles, a proposal will be made to the corresponding author for publication in open access or under the standard licence
- upon a positive response from the corresponding author, the article will be published in open access
- there is provision for retrospective conversion of any eligible articles that escape selection by IOP.
Guidance for authors
IOP is committed to making it clear to authors that accepted articles are intended to be published in open access as part of the Crui-IOP 2023-2025 transformative contract and that no fee is required to be paid for open access publication of their articles.
Eligible authors will be identified through at least one of the following parameters: institution/affiliation name or email domain (@unifi.it).
If the institution does not recognize the eligible author under the terms of the Crui-IOP contract, the corresponding author will be offered the option of paying APC outside the contract or publishing under the standard licence.
Upon publication, the Editor will provide the eligible author via e-mail with a link to the editorial version of their article with a mechanism to access the PDF copy and the DOI of the article.
Types of eligible articles: Paper, Special Issue Paper, Review and/or Letter.
Who bears the costs?: University Library System
Oxford University Press
Duration of the contract: three years (01/01/2024-31/12/2026)
What the agreement provides: access to journals on the Oxford Academic platform with the possibility for eligible authors from contract institutions to publish scientific articles under an Open Access licence in all hybrid journals published by the publisher. The number of OA tokens (articles) fixed in the contract is unlimited.
Accessible content: the contract provides access to the full-text content of the 500 journals on Oxford Academic.
Where you can publish: all authors affiliated with the University of Florence have the opportunity to publish open access in all hybrid journals of Oxford University Press.
15% discount on APCs for fully OA (Gold) journals that remain outside the agreement.
Open Access Management: it will be possible for authors to publish under both the CC BY 4.0 licence (the most open, the one recommended) and the CC BY NC 4.0 licence
Please note that the corresponding author, in order to enjoy the benefits of the agreement, must be affiliated with UniFI at the time of acceptance of the article.
The procedure for free retrospective retrieval in Open Access of accepted articles published in hybrid eligible journals from 1 January 2024 is envisaged.
Types of articles eligible: Research Article, Review Article, Case Report, Brief Report.
Who bears the costs: University Library System.
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
The number of vouchers for OA articles set in the contract does not provide for a pre-established distribution among member institutions, and free OA publication will be possible until the OA Fund available under the contract is exhausted.
Eligible articles will be those written by Unifi-affiliated authors and accepted by the editorial board for publication in RSC hybrid journals with an acceptance date within the contract period. In the case of articles published by multiple authors, it is essential that the corresponding author who submitted the article is an author affiliated with Unifi.
As part of the publication workflow managed by the Publisher, a choice of publication options will be presented: it is necessary for the corresponding author to correctly select Unifi affiliation and use the institutional email (@unifi.it). Instructions to authors.
The Publisher will publish eligible articles by Unifi-affiliated authors under the open access licence or under the standard publication licence (i.e., subscription, based on the corresponding author's choice). The Publisher agrees to make it clear to authors that accepted articles are intended for open access publication as part of the Crui-RSC 2022-2024 contract and that no fee is required to be paid for open access publication of their articles.
The article record in the RSC platform will include all the necessary metadata including name and email address of the corresponding author, full name of the corresponding author's affiliation and other affiliations if there are more than one, date of acceptance, journal title, e-issn of the journal, title of the article, type of article.
SCOAP3
Duration of the SCOAP3 project: five years (2020-2024)
What does the project entail?: It is an initiative launched by CERN in 2014 and has now reached the third phase (2020-2024) which is an international scientific collaboration between public research bodies and universities, aimed at supporting the costs of publishing in Gold Open Access journals of Particle Physics material.
This collaboration was formalized with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by the University of Florence, subsequently ratified by agreements between CRUI and INFN, which represents the reference institution for Italy.
The costs for the financing of the project are borne by the Universities, among which the University of Florence and research entities that subscribed to the journals included in the initial phase of the project and in the subsequent phases.
Accessible content: Access to the full OA journals included in the project.
Where publish: All authors affiliated with the University of Florence have the possibility to publish with open access, at no additional cost, in the following journals:
•Chinese Physics C- IOP
•The European Physical Journal C - Springer Nature
•The Journal of High Energy Physics - Springer Nature
•Nuclear Physics B - Elsevier
•Physics Letters B - Elsevier
•Physical Review C - APS Physics
•Physical Review D - APS Physics
•Physical Review Letters - APS Physics
Open access management: to submit the article to the chosen journal, the corresponding author must correctly indicate the affiliation to Unifi and use their institutional email address (@unifi.it), including also, if possible, their own ORCID. Specific indications are contained on the websites of the various journals (for example Physical Review C).
Types of articles: no restrictions
Who bears the costs?: University Library System
Springer
Duration of the contract: one year (2025)
Contract terms and conditions: the costs incurred by the University for the consultation of periodicals also cover those for open access publications by affiliated authors. The number of OA tokens (articles) set out in the contract does not provide for a pre-established distribution between the participating institutions and is not unlimited.
Accessible content: The contract provides access to the 2,344 titles of electronic journals included in the Springer Compact and Single Title Journal Subscriptions (including the Springer, Addis, Palgrave titles), available on the platform SpringerLink
Where to publish: All authors affiliated with the University of Florence have the possibility to publish in open access in the 2,037 hybrid journals subscribed in accordance with the procedures available on the publisher’s website
Open access management: for the presentation of the article to the chosen journal the corresponding author must correctly select the affiliation to Unifi and uses their institutional email address (@unifi.it), following the instructions defined by the publisher for the corresponding authors.
After the peer review phase, the corresponding author is informed of the existence of an agreement with the University that allows publishing the article accepted in open access mode without additional costs to the authors and is invited to choose whether to publish in closed or open access mode (OA option).
Once this choice has been communicated to the publisher, the publisher ‘holds the article pending’ until it receives confirmation of the affiliation of the corresponding author by the University Library System; once the confirmation has been received, the process of publication of the article in OA mode is initiated, without additional costs.
Types of articles: original papers and review papers. Excludes brief communications
Who bears the costs?: University Library System
Wiley
Duration of the contract: (2024-2027)
Contract terms and conditions: Access to subscribed resources included in the Wiley Online Library platform with the chance for eligible Authors from contracted Institutions to publish scientific articles under an Open Access licence in all Hybrid and Gold OA journals published by the publisher.
The number of OA tokens (articles) set out in the contract does not provide for a pre-established distribution between the participating institutions and is not unlimited.
Accessible content: The contract provides for access to the titles of electronic journals included in the Wiley Online Library Database Collection
Where to publish: All the authors affiliated with the University of Florence have the possibility to publish with open access in the more than 1,350 hybrid journals and all Gold Open Access journalsincluded in the Wiley Online Library.
Hindawi journals are excluded from the contract.
Open access management: For 2024, CC BY 4.0 will be set as the default licence, however, it will also be possible for authors to publish under CC BY NC ND 4.0.
The Wiley support team will place the article in the normal workflow for approval by the institution.As of 2026, only the CC-BY option will be available. Authors who wish to publish articles under other licences will be able to proceed outside of the contract and bear the publication costs themselves with funds other than contractual funds.
There is a retrospective retrieval procedure for articles accepted and published in Hybrid eligible journals from January 1, 2024. Reimbursement is provided for articles published in OA in Hybrid and Gold OA journals.
Types of articles: Case Study, Commentary, Data Article, Education, Lecture, Method and Protocol, Perspective, Practice and Policy, Rapid Publication, Research Article, Review Article, Short Communication e Technical Note.
Who bears the costs?: University Library System
Last update
23.04.2025