Discounts and Funding for Open Access Publishing

UCSF authors are eligible for discounts on open access publication charges for selected book publishers as well as journal articles with the publishers below.

Publication discounts for journals

Follow the links in the Discount column below for more information about how to get the discount or library payment. All journal agreements apply to UCSF or UC authors who are in the corresponding author position unless otherwise noted.

Jump to a publisher in the table below:
AAAS | ACM | ACS | Biochemical Society | BMC | BMJ Case Reports | Cambridge University Press | Cold Spring Harbor Lab Press | Company of Biologists | Elsevier | Frontiers limited pilot | IEEE | JMIR | Karger (discontinued) | MDPI | Microbiology SocietyNAS (PNAS) | Open Library of HumanitiesOxford (Nucleic Acids Research) | PLOS | Royal Society of Chemistry | SAGE | SPIE | Springer Nature | Taylor & Francis | UC Press | Wiley |

Publisher name & covered journal(s) Discount on OA charges & info link

AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
(Science Advances only)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • 10% discount when publishing in Science Advances
  • additional 4% discount available for AAAS members

ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)

(all journals, proceedings, and magazines)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • 100% discount (no cost to UC corresponding authors)
  • research and review articles only

ACS (American Chemical Society)

(all journal and article types)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • Single, discounted $3000 article processing charge (unless APC is lower)
  • Full APC covered for unfunded authors 

Biochemical Society, The / Portland Press

(all journals and article types)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • First $1000 automatically covered 
  • Remainder covered for unfunded authors.

BMC (BioMed Central) - see Springer Nature

see Springer Nature
BMJ (BMJ Case Reports only)

UCSF Institutional Fellowship

Cambridge University Press

(all journals marked as "open access" or "contains open access")

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • 30% discount
  • First $1000 automatically covered 
  • Remainder covered for unfunded authors
  • Research articles, review articles, Brief Reports and Case Reports

Cold Spring Harbor Lab Press

(Genes & DevelopmentGenome ResearchLearning & MemoryRNA, and CSH Molecular Case Studies)

UCSF agreement (see full details)

  • 100% discount (no cost for UCSF corresponding authors)
  • Research, review, and case study articles
  • See also CSHLP's FAQ for Authors

Company of Biologists

(all journals; see article types covered)

UC-wide agreement (see full details):

  • 10% discount 
  • First $1000 automatically covered 
  • Remainder covered for unfunded authors

Elsevier

  • See journals & article types covered
  • Some society journals are excluded; check column F of title list (use the drop-down arrow in column B to sort the list alphabetically)
  • All Cell Press and The Lancet titles are covered as of September 1, 2022

UC-wide agreement (see full details):

  • 15% discount (10% for Cell Press and The Lancet titles)
  • First $1000 automatically covered
  • Remainder covered for unfunded authors

Frontiers limited pilot agreement

 

UC-wide pilot agreement (see full details):

  • APC fully covered (no cost to author)
  • 20 selected journals in the humanities, social sciences and sustainability
  • Articles accepted between August 1, 2023 and July 30, 2024

IEEE (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers)

(all journals and article types - conference proceedings are not covered)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • Update as of October 4, 2023: open access and page charge support will end effective January 1, 2024. (more info)
  • Article processing charge (APC) is fully covered for authors without grant funds
  • Authors with grant funds are asked to pay the full APC
  • Overlength page charges are covered for all authors

JMIR Publications

(all journals and article types)

UC-wide agreement (see full details):

  • Renewed for 2023. Covers manuscripts submitted through December 31, 2023
  • First $1000 automatically covered
  • Remainder covered for authors without grant funds for OA publishing
  • Use @ucsf.edu email address during submission
Karger - discontinued in 2022 UCSF is no longer participating in the Karger agreement due to budget reductions.
Articles prior to 2022 received 50% discount
MDPI (all journals)

UCSF agreement (see details from publisher)

  • 10% discount for UCSF authors in any author position. Select UCSF during manuscript submission.

Microbiology Society, The

(all journals and article types)

UCSF agreement (see details from the society)

  • 100% discount (no cost to UCSF corresponding authors)
  • Use @ucsf.edu email
National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • Single reduced rate of $3000 for open access publishing
  • No separate page charges
Open Library of Humanities (all journals)

UC-wide Supporter membership

  • 100% discount (no cost to UC authors)
Oxford University Press (Nucleic Acids Research only)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • 50% discount off the article processing charge for Nucleic Acids Research
PLOS (all journals and article types)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • Covers manuscripts submitted from April 1, 2020 through March 31, 2024.
  • First $1000 automatically covered
  • Remainder covered for unfunded authors

Royal Society of Chemistry
(subscription journals)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • 15% discount when publishing in RSC subscription journals

SAGE Publishing

(all articles in most journals - see a list of excluded journals)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • 15% discount in fully open access journals and 20% discount in hybrid journals
  • First $1000 automatically covered
  • Remainder covered for unfunded authors

SPIE (optics and photonics society)

(Journal of Biomedical Optics and Neurophotonics only)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • 25% discount off open access charges in Journal of Biomedical Optics and Neurophotonics

Springer Nature

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • For Springer portfolio (includes BMC/BioMed Central), first $1000 covered and remainder covered for unfunded authors
  • For Nature portfolio, first $1000 covered (effective 1 August 2022)
  • 15% discount for journals in BMC and SpringerOpen journals 

Taylor & Francis

(all journals; Dove Press journals are not included)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • Hybrid OA journals: 75% article processing charge discount
  • Fully OA journals: the lower of either the journal's article processing charge or 25% of the standard hybrid price

UC Press: Collabra:Psychology and Elementa

UC-wide membership (see full details)

  • 100% coverage for UC authors without research funds when publishing in Collabra:Psychology and Elementa

Wiley

(all Wiley journals; Hindawi journals are not included)

(article types covered: research, review, case study, commentary, data article, education, lecture, method and protocol,  perspective, practice & policy, rapid publication, short communication, technical note)

UC-wide agreement (see full details)

  • Pilot for articles accepted March 1 - December 31, 2023
  • Articles submitted to a full open access journal or accepted in a hybrid open access journal between January 1 and February 28, 2023 but not yet published will be retroactively covered
  • 15% discount 
  • First $1000 automatically covered
  • Remainder covered for unfunded authors
  • See article payment process

Publication discounts for books

Publisher Discount Available Additional Info
Luminos (UC Press) 10% discount off Title Publication Fee (UC rate is $5000)  
Open Book Publishers OA publication fee is optional (see details) See Author's Guide

Visit our Open Access Publishing page for more information or to connect with a scholarly communication expert.

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