In the past two years, the Library and Information Service has signed agreements with a number of publishers that offer discounts on article processing charges (APCs) or, in some cases, allow authors to publish OA without paying APCs. In 2023, over 4 400 hybrid journals and 550 fully OA journals have been added to the list of journals where SU authors can publish fully OA without APCs, bringing the total to more than 7 300 hybrid journals opened up as a result of transformational agreements. What this means is that in 2023, South African authors can now publish fully OA without APCs in more than half of all subscription journals that member institutions subscribe to!
We would like to encourage researchers to use these publishing options to enhance the visibility of SU research as well as to raise the research profile of the University.
The Library has signed the following OA (Read and Publish) agreements with publishers to date:
American Chemical Society (ACS)
This is a three-year Read and Publish agreement (2023-2025) for the ACS All Publications package. The agreement includes continued read access to over 75 journals in the ACS All Publications package as well as unlimited open access publishing in the
ACS hybrid journals.
There is no limit on the number of articles that can be published open access in the ACS hybrid journals. For gold open access journals (the ACS Au journals), a flat $3 000 article processing charge (APC) applies. The exception is ACS Omega, for which the APC is already heavily discounted.
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
The library's agreement with ACM allows SU authors to publish OA in ACM journals at no cost. Authors can opt out of the OA arrangement and publish behind a paywall if they so choose.
Cambridge University Press (CUP) The Library has signed a Read & Publish agreement with CUP, which covers OA APCs. This agreement allows all corresponding authors from SU to publish research articles in
CUP journals at no extra cost. Authors must use their
@sun.ac.za email address when submitting an article to a CUP OA journal.
Emerald The Read & Publish agreement with Emerald for 2022-2024 permits corresponding authors from SU to publish a capped number of articles as OA free of charge in the
gold and hybrid journals to which we subscribe. The caps apply to all participating SANLiC members and work on a first-come-first-served basis.
Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) journals on the SAGE platform The Library's Read & Publish agreement with SAGE will also permit corresponding authors from SU to publish an uncapped number of articles as OA in the IMechE journals. This
collection includes the 16-part Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers as well as two other peer-reviewed engineering journals.
IOP Science Extra Read access is provided to over 70 scholarly journals, including the renowned Journal of Physics series, back to 1874. Publishing is unlimited in
IOP's hybrid and
gold OA journals. However, there are a few titles where the IOP is contractually prevented from offering open access publishing.
Oxford Journals The Oxford Journals collection features 376 scholarly and authoritative journals published in collaboration with several professional societies. Current subscriptions include access back to 1996. Publishing is unlimited in all
eligible hybrid journals and a 10% discount applies to article processing charges in
Gold Open Access journals.Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) Corresponding SU authors will receive a 10% discount on the APCs for any paper accepted for publication by MDPI. Subjects and journals covered by this agreement are available at this
link.Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
SU authors will receive a 15% discount on APCs when publishing OA with RSC. The first four articles submitted to RSC by SU authors per year will be published free of charge.
SAGE The Library's agreement with SAGE allows corresponding authors from SU to publish an uncapped number of articles as OA in SAGE
hybrid titles (SAGE Choice). Eligible corresponding authors will receive a discount of 20% on SAGE's
Pure Gold Open Access Journals. There are a small number of exclusions where SAGE is contractually prevented from offering this discount.
ScienceDirect This is a three-year (2023-2025) Read and Publish agreement with Elsevier for the ScienceDirect Freedom Collection. The offer includes
capped hybrid OA publishing without article processing charges with a nationwide limit of 2 221 articles in 2023. The agreement also includes a 15% discount on the APCs for
Gold Open Access titles.
Also included is a developmental programme to support growth and development in the South African researcher community. You can read about the agreement
here.
SCOAP³ The Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (SCOAP³) is a global partnership between libraries, national funding agencies and research institutions from 47 countries, as well as three intergovernmental organisations. SCOAP³ converts subscription journals in the field of high-energy physics (particle physics) to OA through the redirection of subscription funds. The partnership allows SU authors to publish OA in these journals free of charge. The SCOAP³ repository may be found
here.
SpringerNature This is a three-year transformational Read and Publish agreement (2023-2025) for the Springer Compact collection, which includes
all hybrid and closed journals in Springer, Adis, Palgrave and Nature Academic journals. No APCs are payable for publishing in these titles.
Fully open access Springer Nature journals, including BioMed Central (BMC) journals and Nature Research Journals, are excluded from this agreement. However, submissions under the University's affiliation will grant researchers 15% discount on the APCs for BMC, Springer Open and Palgrave Macmillan Open titles. See below.
Springer Nature OA and BioMed Central (BMC) The Library continues to administer the University's deposit account with Springer Nature (which owns BMC), which allows SU researchers to submit articles to BMC, Springer Open, Nature Open and Palgrave Macmillan Open journals without having to pay APCs before publication. Submissions under the University's deposit account will afford researchers 15% discount on the APCs for BMC, Springer Open and Palgrave Macmillan Open titles. No discounts are available for publishing in Nature Open, although the University's deposit account may be used. Upon publication researchers will have to refund the Library 100% of the APC, plus 15% VAT. By submitting an article to Springer Nature against the University's deposit account for publication in any of the aforementioned four sets of journals, a researcher agrees to refunding the full cost to the Library after publication. The Library will claim this refund from the researcher upon receiving notification from Springer Nature that an article submitted against the University's deposit account has been published. (ZAR value calculated at the exchange rate on the day of claiming the refund).
This is a three-year agreement (2024-2026).
Institutions participating in this agreement have read access to nearly 2000 journals in the Social Sciences and humanities (SSH) and Science & Technology (S&T packages. In addition, eligible authors affiliated to subscribing institutions can publish their articles open access in all Taylor & Francis Open Select (hybrid) journals without paying article processing charges (APCs). Eligible authors will also benefit from a 10% discount when they publish in the Taylor & Francis fully open access journals.
There is a limit (Cap) on the number of articles that can be published by authors affiliated to participating institutions. For 2024 the cap is 1276 articles, shared across the consortium and allocated on a first come first served basis. The cap is split into two groups: 37% of the article entitlement is dedicated to publishing in UNISA and NISC journals, while 63% remains available for publishing across all other Open Select (hybrid) journals.
This is a three year agreement (2024-2026).
Authors affiliated with Styellenbosch University can publish an uncapped number of research articles immediately Open Access (OA) in our hybrid journals (Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology) and our fully Open Access journals (Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open) without paying an article processing charge (APC). Researchers at participating institutions also benefit from unlimited access to our hybrid journals, including their full archives dating back to 1853.
Number of included articles
There is no limit on the number of articles that authors affiliated with participating institutions can publish open access without paying article processing charges (APCs).
