RESEARCHERS

Transformative agreements and grants to publish in open access at the UPC

Transformative agreements

  • These are contracts that transform traditional journal subscription agreements between publishers and universities or consortia. These agreements allow articles published by the authors to be published in immediate open access when they are members of the institution that signs the agreement without paying an APC (Article Processing Charges).
  • Thus, budgets previously earmarked for "pay to access" allow you to gradually move to "pay to publish in open access." Therefore, the transformative agreements allow to publish in open access a part of what the research staff of the institution publishes in the journals of a publishing house and in the long run, in its entirety. 
  • In case of publishing articles in co-authorship with members of other institutions and/or countries, it is recommended to consult the ESAC (Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges), global register of transformative agreements to find out which authors can benefit from transformative agreements and decide the corresponding author. 
  • In 2019, the CRUE undertook to promote the Open Science. Subsequently, a committee of the CRUE, the CSIC and the university libraries have negotiated transformative agreements with the Elsevier publishing houses, Springer, Wiley, the American Chemical Society (ACS), the American Institute of Physics (AIP), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).
  • The agreements are valid from 2021 and until 2024. In the case of the American Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Chemistry, until 2025.
  • As an individual the UPC has signed a transformative agreement for 2024 with the publishing Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).
  • Each publisher provides a certain number of APCs in the form of vouchers or a certain amount to publish in immediate open access. It also determines in which journals APCs can be used by indicating specific journal titles. 
  • From the platform of each publisher and during the process of publishing an article, the publisher offers the author of correspondence the possibility of publishing the article in immediate open access within the conditions of the agreement between the publishing house and its institution.
  • During the process of accepting an article, when the corresponding author indicates that he/she wants to publish in open access, the publisher contacts the Library, Publications and Archives Service, which checks that all the requirements are met.
  • For articles published in 2024, the allocation criteria are as follows, inclusively:
  1. The author of the correspondence is linked to UPC at the time of submitting the article to the publisher for acceptance and publication. The link to the UPC can be as a PDI, PAS, research fellow or doctoral student and is verified from the corporate identity system Digital Identity UPC. For these purposes, the staff invited to the UPC not considered related personnel.  
  2. In the article, the affiliation of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya has been incorporated into the signature of the UPC authors according to the established guidelines.
  3. The corresponding author has the ORCIDcode, this is reported in DRAC and is shown in FUTUR.
  4. The corresponding author is linked to a UPC research group. This criterion does not apply to doctoral students without a contractual relationship with the UPC when they are corresponding authors of the articles. Linking to the research group UPC is verified from DRAC o FUTUR

For groups that have equal to or more than 10 PAR type 1 points for EDP (Teachers and full-time doctoral research staff):  
- Elsevier Springer, Wiley and American Chemical Society: 2 APC per group and publisher.
- IEEE and RSC: 1 APC per group
- AIP: they are assigned in order of arrival until the 47 APCs available for articles published by the 7 Catalan universities participating in this agreement (UB, UAB, UPC, UdG, URV, BC and UIB).   

For groups that have equal or more than 3 EDP and equal or more than 80 PAR type 1 points for EDP or more (both conditions): 
- Elsevier Springer and Wiley: 4 APC per group and publisher
- American Chemical Society and IEEE: 2 APC per group and publisher
- CSR: 1 APC per group
- AIP: they are assigned in order of arrival until the 47 APCs available for articles published by the 7 Catalan universities participating in this agreement (UB, UAB, UPC, UdG, URV, BC and UIB).

  • The SBPA requests a copy of the article from the corresponding author in case it cannot be accessed from the publication platform.
  • In case of publishing the article as part of a project, remember that many funding bodies require a license Creative Commons CC BY. Publishers already assign the CC by or let the author choose one.

  • The APCs are assigned in order of request on the platform of each publisher, until the available bonds included in the transformative agreement with each publisher are exhausted.  

  • When a publisher does not have more APCs, it is reported in the section of specific conditions of the publisher.

  • List of articles published by research staff UPC in 2021 with assigned APCs.

In case of publishing articles in co-authorship with members of other institutions and/or countries, it is recommended to consult the ESAC (Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges), global registry of transformative agreements to assign the role of corresponding author.

Wiley

  • In journals: these are traditional journals that offer authors the possibility of their individual articles being freely accessible to everyone in exchange for the payment of an APC. Other articles in the same journal can only be accessed by subscription (Source: MIT)
  • List of hybrid magazine titles where to publish in open access and for also for subject matter. The APC is requested once the article has been accepted for publication. 
  • En hybrid that they have become gold. The APC is requested at the time of sending the article to the publisher, before starting the peer-review.
  • List of gold magazine titles where to publish in open access. Also includes Hindawi magazines.
  • Only for original research articles or reviews (primary research or review articles) and not for letters o editorials.  
  • Summary sheet of the'transformative agreement with Wiley.
  • Search of journals from the publishing house Wiley
  • More information 
  • Contact address with the publisher for authors: cs-openaccess@wiley.com

 

  • For 2024 there is a national budget allocation for all CRUE-CSIC institutions of the transformative agreement with Wiley. APCs are available for both hybrid and gold magazines.   
  • Allocation of Wiley APCs by Research Groups UPC:
    • Groups that have equal to or more than 10 PAR type 1 points for EDP (Teachers and full-time doctoral research staff): 2 APC.
    • Groups that have equal or more than 3 EDP and equal or more than 80 PAR type 1 points per EDP (both conditions): 4 APC.

 

You can consult the following resources: 

 

Elsevier

  • En hybrid journals (these are traditional journals that offer authors the ability to make their individual articles open to everyone in exchange for paying an APC. Other articles in the same journal are accessible only by subscription (Source: MIT)).
  • The transformative agreement with Elsevier also includes a 10% discount on the price to be paid for open publishing in gold magazines of this publisher, after verifying that the corresponding author is a research staff UPC. In gold magazines all articles are open access. 
  • Relation of hybrid magazine titles of Elsevier where to publish in open access. 
  • Journals according to the subject.
  • Summary sheet of the'transformative agreement with this publisher. 
  • More information
  • Publisher contact address for authors: support@elsevier.com
  • In the transformative agreement with Elsevier, the UPC initially has 204 APCs for 2024.
  • Elsevier APC allocation by UPC Research Groups:
    • Groups that have equal to or more than 10 PAR type 1 points for EDP (Teachers and full-time doctoral research staff): 2 APC.
    • Groups that have equal or more than 3 EDP and equal or more than 80 PAR type 1 points per EDP (both conditions): 4 APC.
  • Currently, APCs are still available. In the event that they run out before the end of the year, this section will be reported.

 

You can consult the following resource: 

Springer

  • En hybrid journals (these are traditional journals that offer authors the ability to make their individual articles freely accessible to everyone in exchange for paying an APC. Other articles in the same journal are subscription-only. Source: MIT) and in journals that have become Gold.
  • They are included Review Papers. 
  • They are not included els brief communication, els Continuing education nor the magazines Nature.
  • List of hybrid de Springer where to publish in open access and for subject matter.
  • Summary sheet of the agreement with this publisher.
  • Text deeeee of the editorial on the transformative agreement.
  • More information 
  • Publisher contact address for authors: oa.verification @springernature.com

 

  • In the transformative agreement with Springer, UPC initially has 65 APCs for 2024. 
  • All research groups can use the Springer APCs without limitation. APCs are allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis. 
  • Currently, APCs are still available. In the event that they run out before the end of the year, this section will be reported.

You can consult the following resources: 

American Chemical Society (ACS)

  • The agreement is to publish in hybrid journals (these are traditional journals that offer authors the ability to make their individual articles freely accessible to everyone in exchange for paying an APC. Other articles in the same journal are subscription-only (Source: MIT)) and in gold magazines, except the ACS Omega magazine.
  • List of journal titles of American Chemical Society where to publish in open access.
  • Summary sheet of the'transformative agreement with this publisher.
  • More information.

 

 

  • In the transformational agreement with the American Chemical Society, the UPC initially has 11 APCs for 2024.
  • Allocation of 2 American Chemical Society APCs by UPC research groups that have:
    • Equal to or more than 10 PAR type 1 points for EDP (Teachers and full-time doctoral research staff).  
    • Equal or more than 3 EDP and equal or more than 80 PAR type 1 points per EDP (both conditions).
  • Currently, the UPC still has APCs available for 2024. 

You can consult the following resources: 

American Institute of Physics (AIP)

  • In hybrid journals (these are traditional journals that offer authors the possibility to make their individual articles freely accessible to everyone in exchange for paying an APC. Other articles in the same journal are only accessible by subscription. Source: MIT ).
  • List of magazines of AIP to publish in open access.
  • Summary sheet of the agreement with this publisher.
  • 47 APCs are available for the Catalan universities UB, UAB, UPC, UdG, URV and UIB
  • APCs are managed on a first-come, first-served basis for groups that have:
    • equal to or more than 10 PAR type 1 points for EDP (Teachers and full-time doctoral research staff)
    • equal to or more than 3 EDP and equal to or more than 80 PAR type 1 points per EDP (both conditions)

You can consult the following resources: 

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

  • In all the hybrid journals from IEEE Electronic Library (IEL) and IEEE All-Society Periodicals Package (ASPP). Hybrid journals are traditional journals that offer authors the possibility to make their individual articles freely accessible to everyone in exchange for payment of an APC. Other articles in the same journal can only be accessed by subscription (Source: MIT)
  • They include meurnals, transactions and magazines. List of hybrid included in the agreement. 
  • APC's do not include excess pages or color.
  • The agreement with IEEE also includes a 20% discount on the price to be paid for open publishing in all its gold magazines (all articles in open access) after verifying that the corresponding author is a research staff UPC. 
  • To benefit from an APC from this publisher, the corresponding author must contact the using journal always email @upc.edu. 
  • For any questions, contact info.biblioteques@upc. Edu
  • For gold journals, the corresponding author must accept the open publishing agreement or OA agreement at the time of submitting the article to the journal for review/acceptance. In the case of hybrid journals, this process takes place when the article has been accepted. 
  • Publisher contact address: onlinesupport@ieee.org
  • Text deeeee about the agreement
  • Month informació
  • In the transformative agreement with IEEE, the UPC initially has 45 APCs for 2024.
  • APCs are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis to groups that have:     
    • equal to or more than 10 PAR type 1 points for EDP (Teachers and full-time doctoral research staff): 1 APC for GR
    • equal or more than 3 EDP and equal or more than 80 PAR type 1 points for EDP (both conditions): 2 APC for GR
  • Currently, APCs are still available. In the event that they run out before the end of the year, this section will be reported.
     

You can consult the following resources: 

Royal Society of Chemistry (CSR)

  • The agreement allows publishing in all hybrid journals and the magazines gold except Chemical Science.
  • See the list of magazines here
  • In the transformative agreement with RSC, the UPC initially has 7 APCs for 2024.
  • In order of arrival, an APC is assigned to groups that have equal to or more than 10 PAR type 1 points for EDP (Teaching staff and full-time doctoral research staff).
  • More information about the agreement 
  • Currently, APCs are still available. In the event that they run out before the end of the year, this section will be reported.

You can consult the following resources: 

SPIE

  • To all hybrid edited by SPIE
  • It is necessary that the author be the corresponding author and sign with affiliation UPC
  • This agreement does not allow you to enjoy an APC with the proceedings
  • Unlimited number of APCs
  • More information within each magazine

Other grants for open publishing in the UPC

The members of the UPC they have a 10% discount for publishing open access articles in Frontiers publishing magazines when they are authors of correspondence. 

  • The discount is requested when sending the article to the publisher, before starting the peer-review.
  • Proof of affiliation UPC. Can be done using email @upc.edu.
  • When the article has been accepted for publication, the publisher issues the invoice with the discount applied, an invoice that is paid with a budget (project, unit or group) managed by the UPC.
  • list of titles of journals from the publishing house by 2024.

SCOAP3 (Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics) is an international project led by CERN whose objective is to open prestigious journals of high-energy physics open access at no cost to the authors. 

The cost of publishing is assumed by each participating country in proportion to its scientific output. The articles are published in SCOAP3 and in the publishers' websites.

The magazines included are:

At the end of 2020 the European Commission (EC) launched the Open Research Europe publishing platform, after signing an agreement with F1000 Research

The European Commission (EC) offers this platform to researchers in the H2020 and Horizon Europe projects to publish open access articles without paying for Article Processing Charges. Publication costs, valued at € 780 per article, are borne by the EC.  

Keep in mind: 

  • the use of the platform is not mandatory
  • the article review model is "open peer-review" 
  • the platform does not include qualitative indicators
  • articles must present results of EC-funded research projects
  • at least one of the co-authors must be linked to an H2020 project, in progress or completed
  • the dataset(s) that support the results presented in the article must be published openly

 

Indexing in Scopus

  • As of July 2022, Scopus indexes Open Research Europe.

 

More information: 

For any questions, contact info.bibliotequesArrovaupc.edu

The members of the UPC they have a 30% discount for publishing articles in open access in Bentham Science publishing journals when they are corresponding authors and at the time of acceptance of the publication.

  • The discount is applicable to all subscription journals, open access journals and books published with the publisher.
  • See the list of magazines here.
  • Guide by the authors
  • More information about the aid 

At UPCommons you can check all the articles in the open access journals published by different units of the UPC. For the editing and publication process some of them use the journal service of the UPC and the Open Journal System (OJS) software.

All of them are polytechnical and some are indexed in the most prestigious international indexes, such as:


Last update: 04 / 03 / 2024