Discounts and Funding for Open Access Publishing

• Use the Journal Open Access Lookup Tool (JOLT) to search for journals included in UC agreements. Additional UCSF-only journal agreements are in the table below (American Physiological Society, BMJ Case Reports, Cold Spring Harbor, MDPI, and Microbiology Society)
• For journals covered by a UCSF-only agreement, determine who publishes the journal or book you would like open access (OA) funding support for and find the publisher by name below. If you are unsure of a journal's publisher, search the journal title in Scopus Sources. The publisher's name will be listed in the full record.
• Look for the publisher by name below, and check the coverage details. Terms vary between agreements, and there are not yet agreements with all publishers.

• Use the Journal Open Access Lookup Tool (JOLT) to search for journals included in UC agreements. Some of these publishers also have journal finder tools to identify journal matches with your article title, abstract, and/or keywords.
• Additional UCSF-only agreements are in the table below (American Physiological Society, BMJ Case Reports, Cold Spring Harbor, MDPI, and Microbiology Society). Browse the title lists for these publishers to find relevant journals. 
• See Steps to Finding the Right Journal for additional tips from the Library on finding and evaluating journals for publication and contact us for help.

• The Library does not have funds for open access (OA) or other publication charges outside of the agreements listed below. Our former OA Fund was discontinued in 2022. See What to do if funding is not available for your journal or publisher.

• Eligible journal: Science Advances
• Discount or funding available:
• 10% discount
• additional 4% discount available for AAAS members
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LLNL, LBNL
• Effective dates: Ongoing
• See full details about the UC AAAS discount

• Eligible journals: All ACS journals. 
• Discount or funding available:
• single, discounted APC of $3,000 (unless APC list price is lower than $3,000)
• full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LLNL, LBNL
• Effective dates: January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2025
• See full details about the UC-ACS agreement

• Eligible journals: 10 APS primary research journals (review journals are excluded)
• Discount or funding available:
• full APC for open access is automatically covered for UCSF corresponding authors
• authors must still pay APS' flat fee for their article type
• APC coverage is through UCSF's subscription to the APS Digital Library
• all 2025 articles in the 10 journals will be made open access if the publisher meets its subscription targets (Subscribe to Open model)
• articles with UCSF corresponding authors will be published open access regardless of the publisher meeting its targets
• UCSF corresponding authors only
• Effective dates: articles published January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2025
• See Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about APS' Subscribe to Open model

• Eligible journals: ASM's 6 primary research subscription-based journals (fully open access journals not included)
• Discount or funding available: APC fully covered (no open access cost to author)
• authors must still pay page and supplemental materials charges at the S2O Subscriber Rates
• all 2025 articles in the 6 journals will be made open access if the publisher meets its subscription targets (Subscribe to Open model)
• articles with UC corresponding authors will be published open access regardless of the publisher meeting its targets
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LLNL, LBNL
• Effective dates: articles accepted January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2025
• See full details about the UC-ASM agreement

• Eligible journals: Research and review articles in all ACM journals, proceedings and magazines 
• Discount or funding available: APC fully covered (no cost to author)
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LLNL, LBNL
• Effective dates: January 1, 2020 – December 31, 2027
• See full details about the UC-ACM agreement

• Eligible journals: All Biochemical Society/Portland Press journals
• Discount or funding available*:
  • First $1,000 of APC automatically covered
  • Full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL
• Effective dates: January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2024 (2025 renewal in process)
• *As of 2025, Biochemical Society has transitioned five of its research journals (all except Bioscience Reports) to a Subscribe to Open business model. Fees will no longer be charged for open access publication. Updated information will be provided above along with the UC agreement page.
• See full details about the UC-Biochemical Society agreement

• Eligible journals: All BMC journals
• Discount or funding available:
  • 15% discount
  • first $1,000 of APC automatically covered
  • full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
• Effective dates: 15% discount is ongoing. See Springer Nature for dates of library support in covering the APC.
• See full details about the UC BMC discount

• Eligible journals: BMJ Case Reports
• Discount or funding available:
• UCSF’s institutional fellowship covers 100% of the standard publication fee only.
• open access publishing fee is not covered.
• obtain fellowship code (requires UCSF MyAccess login).
• UCSF only

• Eligible journals: All journals marked as "open access" or "contains open access." A small number of society-owned journals that do not yet offer an open access option are excluded.
• Eligible articles: research articles, review articles, Brief Reports, and Case Reports
• Discount or funding available:
• 30% discount
• first $1,000 of APC automatically covered
• full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing.
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
• Effective dates: January 2019 – December 31, 2025
• See full details about the UC-Cambridge University Press agreement

• Eligible journals: Genes & Development, Genome Research, Learning & Memory, and RNA
• Eligible articles: research, review, and case study articles
• Discounted OA fee of $2035 (45% discount)
• no separate publication charges
• UCSF corresponding authors only
• Effective dates: eligible articles accepted between Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025
• CSHLP's FAQ for Authors

Notes: Molecular Case Studies is no longer published as of 2024.

• Eligible journals: All CoB journals and article types
• Discount or funding available:
• 10% discount
• first $1,000 of APC automatically covered
• full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL
• Effective dates: January 1, 2021 – December 31, 2026
• See full details about the UC-CoB agreement

• Eligible journals: 26 Copernicus open access journals (that charge a flat fee)
• Discount or funding available: 50% off of APC
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL
• Effective dates: January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2025
• See full details about the UC-Copernicus agreement

• Eligible journals: All Elsevier journals, excluding a limited number of society journals
• search Elsevier for participating journals
• see column F on UC's list of participating and non-participating journals (not sorted alphabetically)
• Discount or funding available:
• 15% discount (10% for Cell Press and The Lancet)
• first $1,000 of APC automatically covered
• full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
• Effective dates: April 1, 2021 – March 31, 2025
• See full details about the UC-Elsevier agreement
• Elsevier's journal finder matches on an abstract or article keywords

• Eligible journals: 20 selected journals in the humanities, social sciences and sustainability (see full details for title list)
• Eligible articles: articles containing original research
• Discount or funding available: APC fully covered (no cost to author)
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
• Effective dates: August 1, 2023 – July 31, 2025
• See full details about the UC-Frontiers limited pilot

As of 1 January 2024, open access and overlength page charge support are no longer provided through the UC agreement (more info). Reading access to IEEE publications continues.

APC support applied to UC manuscripts accepted July 15, 2022 – December 31, 2023. See IEEE agreement details

• Eligible journals: All IWA journals
• Discount or funding available: APC fully covered (no cost to author)
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
• Effective dates: July 15, 2023 – June 30, 2026
• See full details about the UC-IWA agreement

• Eligible journals: All JMIR journals
• Discount or funding available:
• first $1,000 of APC automatically covered
• full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
• Effective dates: December 23, 2019 – December 31, 2024 (2025 renewal in process)
• See full details about the UC-JMIR agreement

UCSF is no longer participating in the Karger agreement due to budget limitations. Articles prior to 2022 received 50% discount. 

• Eligible journals: All MDPI journals
• Discount or funding available:
• 10% discount for UCSF authors in any author position. Select UCSF during manuscript submission.
• UCSF only
• Ongoing
• See details about MDPI's Institutional Open Access Program

• Eligible journals: All Microbiology Society journals
• Discount or funding available: APC fully covered (no cost to author)
• UCSF only; submit using @ucsf.edu email.
• Ongoing
• See details from The Microbiology Society's Publish and Read program. 

• Eligible journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
• Discount or funding available:
• single, discounted APC of $3,225 per article
• no separate page charges
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
• Effective dates: August 1, 2021 – December 31, 2026
• See full details about the UC-NAS agreement

• Eligible journals: all OLH journals
• Discount or funding available: fully covered (no cost to author)
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, through a supporter membership
• See FAQS for authors

• Eligible journals: all OUP journals
• Discount or funding available:
  • hybrid journals: first $1000 of APC automatically covered; full APC covered for authors without funds for open access publishing
  • fully open access journals: first $750 of APC automatically covered (flat subsidy)
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
• Effective dates: February 4, 2025 - December 31, 2028
• See full details about the UC-OUP agreement
• See a visual guide to the OUP author workflow

• Eligible journals: All PLOS journals and article types
• Discount or funding available:
• first $1,000 of APC automatically covered
• full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
• Effective dates: Manuscripts submitted April 1, 2020 – February 28, 2025 (2025 renewal in process)
• During submission, in the Additional Information section, select Institutional Account Program, then UCSF, then your payment method
• See full details about the UC-PLOS agreement

• Eligible journals: All RSC subscription journals (fully OA journals not included)
• Discount or funding available: 15% discount
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
• Effective dates: Ongoing
• See full details about the UC-RSC agreement

• Eligible journals: All SAGE journals, excluding a small number of society journals
• Discount or funding available:
• 20% discount for hybrid (subscription) journals; 15% discount for fully open access journals
• first $1,000 of APC automatically covered
• full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL, LLNL
• Effective dates: January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2024 (2025 renewal in process)
• See full details about the UC-SAGE agreement
• SAGE's journal recommender matches on a manuscript title or keywords

• Eligible journals: Journal of Biomedical Optics and Neurophotonics
• Discount or funding available: 25% discount
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
• Effective dates: Ongoing
• See full details about the UC-SPIE agreement

• Eligible journals: All journals are included in the agreement except Adis’ open access and Rapid+ journals. Coverage differs for Springer and Nature journal portfolios.
• Eligible article types: original papers, case reports, review papers, brief communications, and continuing education. See FAQ for details.
• Discount or funding available:
  • first $1,000 of APC automatically covered
  • for Springer portfolio (includes BMC & Palgrave), full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing.
  • for Nature portfolio journals, only the first $1000 of APC is covered. See FAQ for details.
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
• Effective dates: January 4, 2021 – December 31, 2024 (2025 renewal in process; publishing support and reading access remain unchanged in the interim)
• See full details about the UC-Springer Nature agreement
• Springer Nature resources:
  • Open access agreement for the University of California
  • Journal Finder matches on a manuscript title, abstract, or keywords

• Eligible journals: all Taylor & Francis hybrid and open access journals except F1000 Research, PeerJ, and Dove Medical Press titles. Routledge Open Select journals are included.
• Eligible article types: all articles containing original research
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL
• Effective dates: January 1, 2024 – December 31, 2027
• See full details about the UC-Taylor & Francis agreement
• Taylor & Francis's journal suggester matches on a manuscript abstract or keywords

• Eligible journals: Collabra: Psychology and Elementa
• Discount or funding available: APC fully covered (no cost to author)
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses
• Effective dates: Ongoing
• See full details about the UC Press agreement

• Eligible journals: All Wiley journals, including those formerly published by Hindawi (as of June 2024)
• Eligible article types: case study, commentary, data article, education, lecture, method and protocol, perspective, practice & policy, rapid publication, research, review, short communication, technical note
• Discount and funding available:
  • 15% discount
  • first $1,000 of APC automatically covered
  • full APC covered for authors without funds available for open access publishing
• UC locations covered: All 10 campuses, LBNL
• Effective dates: March 1, 2023 – December 31, 2026
• See full details about the UC-Wiley agreement
• Wiley resources
  • OA agreement with UC, including step-by-step acceptance workflows for UC authors
  • Wiley's journal finder matches on a manuscript title and abstract