The Library has limited funding from an UKRI* block grant to pay article processing charges. This grant will enable authors to comply with their funder's open access policy. Annual grant awards are made to the University and we provide financial support to researchers on a first come, first served basis. More information about the UKRI open access policy and the current version of the FAQ section (May 2019) can be found on their website.
*UKRI (formerly RCUK) includes AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, and STFC.
Where we are able to reduce the cost of publishing Gold OA in subscription (hybrid) journals via offsetting deals or membership schemes, the information is available on the 'Publisher Discount' tab on this page.
Phone +44 (0)1792 604567
Postal Address:
Open Access
Library Research Support Team
Singleton Park Library
Swansea University
Swansea
United Kingdom
SA2 8PP
The open access policy stipulates that all publications arising from UKRI funded research must either be available as immediate open access (gold route) or a copy of the author's accepted manuscript must be placed in the repository, Cronfa with an acceptable embargo period and licence (green route).
Gold Route - (immediate open access):
Where an APC is paid, it is a requirement that the licence applied is CC-BY.
Green Route - (deposit of the final accepted manuscript in a repository, usually with an embargo):
The UKRI (RCUK) preference is for CC-BY, however, the formal requirement is that the licence places no restriction on non-commercial reuse, including non-commercial text-and data-mining. The licence should also allow for the sharing of adaptations of the material. This means a CC-BY-NC licence, or equivalent is acceptable.
A CC-BY-NC-ND licence is not compliant.
Open Government Licence (OGL) - Crown Body employees.
The Library has signed up to several deals with publishers that discount the cost of Gold Open Access. Authors should also note that some learned societies and publishers also offer discounts to individual members.
An Open Access publisher across all disciplines
In the MDPI submission system, authors must select Swansea University to get a 10% discount. You will be asked to confirm if you are eligible for UKRI (RCUK) funding. If you are not eligible you will still receive the discount but will need to pay the APC from your own budget or grant. For UKRI financial support apply in the first instance using the Swansea University gold APC online form.
IOP Publishing (IOP), Jisc Collections and Swansea University Library Services have come to an agreement which enables researchers to publish their work on an open access basis at no additional cost in the majority of IOP’s hybrid journals. The agreement balances the cost of hybrid article publication charges (APCs) against journal license fees for 2020 onwards.
All corresponding (submitting) authors can publish in eligible journals open access without barriers, without additional cost, and be certain that they comply to any open access requirement. Eligible hybrid titles are available from this list.
Research articles and reviews (letters, papers, reviews and special issue articles) accepted for publication after 1 Jan 2020 are eligible, IOP will automatically identify qualifying articles and inform authors of their inclusion.
Included in the agreement are all subscription journals, owned by IOP Publishing, which offer a hybrid open access option. In addition, the agreement also includes selected journals which are published by IOP Publishing on behalf of our society partners.
How to take advantage of the agreement
1. Identify yourself clearly in the article submission form and the article itself
2. Use a Swansea University email address
3. Follow the IOP submission instructions
Articles are published with a Creative Commons CC-BY licence at no cost to you.
Discounted APCs
Corresponding (submitting) authors at subscribing institutions can also benefit from a 70% discount on the standard APC of hybrid journals not included in the above list that are published with some of our partner societies. Please visit IOP for further details. This discount is not available for any journal that is funded by page charges or submissions fees.
SAGE has an agreement with WHEEL (Wales Higher Education Electronic Library) from June 2020 to December 2022.
The details of the discount agreement are as follows:
Subscription journals
Corresponding authors publishing an article in 900+ subscription journals in the current SAGE Premier package which offers hybrid open access publishing (SAGE Choice) can be published open access at a highly discounted rate of 200 GBP.
SAGE will contact all eligible authors to inform them of the agreement and invite them to the SAGE Open Access Portal to take any additional steps needed to make their article open access under the terms of this agreement. Authors will need to fund the discounted £200 OA fee independently unless the research is UKRI funded.
Gold open access journals
Corresponding authors publishing an article in a gold open access journal are also entitled to a 20% discount on the prevailing article processing charge (APC) for that journal. This discount will be applied automatically in the SAGE Open Access Portal. Where an author is eligible for more than one discount, discounts cannot be combined but the highest discount available to the author will be applied to the APC due. Click here for the participating Gold journal title list.
To benefit:
Eligible corresponding authors should use their Swansea University email address in all applications.
If you are affiliated with a participating institution, the UK Read and Publish (Springer Compact) agreement means you can publish your article open access - at no cost to you in more than 1,850 Springer hybrid (subscription) journals. Check the hybrid journal list. It will open as an Excel spreadsheet download.
In addition, you can enjoy full access to all Springer subscription journal content.
Established by Jisc and paid for by the Swansea University Library Service, this agreement will run through 31 December 2021.
Application Checklist
The corresponding author may apply using the Springer portal (My Publication) which will initiate an approval process between the university and the publisher. This is applicable for article types: original paper, review paper, brief communication or continuing education. There is no need to complete a request via the Swansea University UKRI APC online form.
1. The corresponding author should select the eligible institutional name (Swansea University).
2. The corresponding author should use their Swansea University email address to help us authenticate your application.
Quick Link
SpringerNature fully open access journals are not included in this package and an individual APC fee may apply. For individual journal APCs please see the journal webpage or consult the Springer Nature APC list. You may apply to us for financial support if you are UKRI funded corresponding author. Please apply using our online application form form once you have had your paper accepted.
Author's may publish articles in any of Wiley's fully Gold Open Access, or OnlineOpen hybrid (subscription) journals with no open access costs to the author *. This open access publishing agreement is limited to original research and review article types.
A list of Wiley's Open Access and hybrid subscription journals is available from the Open Access Author Dashboard together with access to an Author Compliance Tool so you can check if you meet your funder obligations.
To publish without having to pay additional Article Publication Charges (APCs), the corresponding author must be from a participating UK institution and the article must have been accepted on or after 2 March 2020.
To be eligible:
Selecting a license for your open access publishing
Quick Links:
*subject to availability of sufficient funds and approval from eligible institutions' Wiley Open Access Account holders.
The university does not maintain a centrally administered APC fund, however some Colleges have limited budgets for supporting REF eligible publications for their academic research staff.
For a list of applicable criteria and an application form please contact the appropriate person in your College.
