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Open Research: Article Processing Charge (APC) Fund

The 2024 APC Fund is now closed. No additional applications will be accepted.
No details are currently available about whether the APC Fund will be available in 2025.

Article Processing Charge (APC) Fund

The University of Newcastle has established an Article Processing Charge (APC) Fund to support the payment of open access publishing in high quality journals.

The APC Fund is supported through RSP Stimulus Funding, and is administered by the University Library. The Fund is intended for the payment of article processing charges by authors who do not have access to other funds which may be used to cover the cost of open access journal publishing.

Authors wishing to apply to the APC Fund should first check the eligibility guidelines. Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication the first named or corresponding author must complete the Application for APC Funding Form. The Library will advise applicants within five business days of the outcome of their application, and if successful, will liaise directly with the publisher to arrange payment of the APC.

Read and Publish Agreements

The University Library has signed 14 Read and Publish Agreements to enable researchers at the University to publish their research open access in over 9,700 journals published by ACM, AIP Publishing, APA, Cambridge University Press, Company of Biologists, CSIRO, De Gruyter, Elsevier, IOP Publishing, Oxford University Press, Sage, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley. All eligible articles accepted for publication in these journals are not subject to APCs. It is important to keep in mind that these Agreements may not cover all journals from each publisher.

Be sure to check journals included as part of these agreements before applying for APC funding.

Support 

Contact Debbie Booth, the Research and Scholarly Communication Advisor, or your School's Research Liaison Librarian if you have any questions about the APC Fund, including the eligibility guidelines.

Eligibility Guidelines for the APC Fund

The APC Fund is a fixed amount of money. Once the fund has been depleted no more APCs will be funded in 2024.
 
Who is eligible?
  • All current University of Newcastle staff, conjoints, and research students
  • The applicant must be the first named, lead, or corresponding author on the manuscript
  • The Fund is limited to one successful application per applicant per calendar year
  • The Fund is limited to one successful application per primary HDR supervisor per calendar year
  • The University of Newcastle must be listed as the affiliated institution for all University of Newcastle authors named on the manuscript

The Fund is intended for the payment of article processing charges by authors who do not have access to other funds which may be used to cover the cost of open access journal publishing.

 

How do I apply and when?
  • Eligible authors must apply using the Application for APC Funding Form. 
    • University of Newcastle authors are eligible for APC discounts on all BioMed Central, and some Elsevier, De Gruyter, RSC and Springer journals. To ensure you are being billed the correct amount please consult Open Access Publishing Discounts.
  • Applications will only be accepted for manuscripts which have been accepted for publication.

Please note that it is not possible to reimburse for article processing charges already paid. Additionally, funds cannot be encumbered for manuscripts that have not yet been accepted for publication.
 

What types of articles are eligible?

The article must meet the ERA Definition of Research:

​​​​ERA defines research as the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way to generate new concepts, methodologies, inventions and understandings. This could include the synthesis and analysis of previous research to the extent that it is new and creative. (ERA 2023 Draft Submission Guidelines, s.1.6.2)

Articles that typically meet this definition include original research, and articles reviewing multiple works or a substantial/systematic review of an entire field of research (usually protocols, editorials, commentaries and letters are excluded from this definition).

 
What journals are eligible?
  • The journal must be currently indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus
  • The journal must be JIF (Journal impact factor) Quartile 1 AND SJR Quartile 1 in the latest edition of Journal Citation Reports and SJR website, or an ABDC Ranked A* journal
    • Applications from CHSF authors: Consideration will be given to Quartile 1 journals in either JIF OR SJR
  • The article must be open access immediately upon publication under a Creative Commons licence, at no additional cost or need for authentication or sign-in.

What fees does the APC Fund cover?
  • The APC Fund will pay for the full article processing charge of eligible journals.

Please note that additional charges for rapid publication, reprints, colour illustrations, excess page charges and other administrative charges are not supported by the Fund.

 

Anything else?
  • Where research data is generated, the authors must include a metadata record and/or the data itself in NOVA, the University's institutional repository.