Library Guides
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- Open Access
- Publishing OA
There are many benefits to publishing your work OA and it is strongly encouraged at Victoria University.
A useful starting point is to simply include a quick assessment of the OA policy of each journal when finalising your publication shortlist. We have prepared a step-by-step 'Open Access Publishing Strategy' for you to use as a guide:
STEP ONE - Establish a shortlist: That is, identify a list of 5-8 journals that meet your ideal criteria based on quality, reach and relevance.
STEP TWO - Identify any OA journals: Of that shortlist, are any journals Gold or Hybrid Open Access? If so, do those journals have an Article Processing Charge (APC)*?
STEP THREE - Check the OA policy for 'Green OA': If you have now have a shortlist of journals that are not OA, look at the copyright policy of each journal on the SHERPA/RoMEO site. Ideally, you are looking for a journal that will permit the author to archive the post-print (ie final draft post-refereeing) version of their article, with no embargo period. the post-print version on a repository such as the VU Research Repository (VURR) would qualify your article as 'Green OA'. Upon publication, be sure to follow the 'How to submit' instructions on the VU Research Repository so that your article is available both through the subscription-based journal you have selected, and as a green OA article via the VU Research Repository.
* Consult the following factsheet on article processing charges for tips for successful gold OA publishing involving an APC
** One final check before publishing OA is to look at the copyright. Ideally the article should be published under a Creative Commons Attribution License where the author retains copyright, and reuse conditions have been stipulated.
Victoria University (VU) Library has Read & Publish (R&P) agreements with seven major publishers as part of the Read & Publish agreements negotiated by the CAUL (Council of Australian University Librarians). The agreements with Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, International Water Association (IWA), SAGE, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley cover both subscription to read journals and Article Processing Charges (APCs) to publish open access.
What this means for VU researchers:
Publish open access in specific journals published by Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, International Water Association (IWA), SAGE, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley.
Submit your article – at the point of payment for APCs, you will see the option to publish open access and you should be able to select our institutional account to cover this.
Update on Capped Agreements
Some publishers have set national publishing caps. When the cap is reached, standard open access charges will apply.
Wiley - For the remainder of the 2024 (October – December), open access publishing in Wiley’s hybrid journals will no longer be possible through the CAUL agreement.
Taylor & Francis has reached its annual article allocation. There will be no further article approvals for 2024.
Springer Nature has reached its annual article allocation. There will be no further article approvals in 2024.
As mentioned above, even if a journal is not Open Access you can still make your work open by submitting a version to the VU Research Repository (VURR).
The Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) is the version you can make open access (Green OA). This version, often in Word format, is peer-reviewed but does not yet have the publishers formatting such as logos.
Publishing in a repository increases citation rates (see Benefits of OA). Content is indexed in Google Scholar, Trove and many other discovery services. VURR is part of a global infrastructure that ensures content can be discovered and accessed by anyone with an internet connection.
Victoria University encourages the open access publication of research outcomes as this will lead to increased dissemination, citation and greater impact of its research output. To support this activity funds are available for an expanded number of publishers covering a large number of journals.
Victoria University has funds available to support the article processing charges from the following publishers:
Please note, only requests that meet Victoria University’s funding criteria will be supported.
For more information on Victoria University’s open access publication funds contact the Education & Research Services Librarian.
The central APC funds will only be supporting requests where the author has to pay the article processing charge to be published. This is known as Gold open access. Please check the current list of ‘Gold’ OA journals that will supported by the central fund - see below.
See below for the current list of supported journals. The supported journals are available on Supported APC Journal Rankings. Please note Scimago rankings are updated every June.
