York Open Access Fund
If you are a researcher at the University of York you can request funding from York Open Access Fund (YOAF) to pay open access fees for articles, books and chapters.
Where can I publish open access?
Find journals where you can publish open access free of charge, or where fees are paid by the Library.
How do I request funding?
You do not need to request funding if:
- You are publishing in a journal or conference proceedings which is covered by one of our open access publishing agreements, which enable you to publish open access at no additional cost.
- Your publisher does not charge an open access fee.
You can use the search box above to identify journals that are covered by open access publishing agreements; journals that do not charge open access fees; and journals that are eligible for funding from YOAF.
YOAF consists of several funding streams. The eligibility criteria for these vary depending on the funding source (either the University or a funding body) and the type of publication. The main funding bodies involved are UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Wellcome Trust. The institutional open access fund is funded from the Library budget.
The Library will decide which funding stream is most appropriate for your publication, based on the information you provide in your application. However, we recommend that you review the criteria, listed below, before committing to any costs. Please note that we cannot provide funding if your publication does not meet one of these sets of criteria.
We advise that you submit your request as early in the publication process as possible and before committing to any costs with your publisher. (You can request funds before submission for publication). If we approve your request, but it later turns out that the funding is no longer required, please let us know, so that we can release the funds for others.
Eligibility criteria
- The open access fee must not be eligible for payment by a research funder, including via a research grant.
- At least one of the authors must be a member of staff, postgraduate researcher, or emeritus/emerita affiliated to the University of York on the date when the article is submitted for publication. The University of York must be given as the institutional affiliation on the published article. (Undergraduate and postgraduate taught students are not eligible to apply for the fund).
- The article must be a peer reviewed research article, review article, protocol, or method article.
- The article must be published in a fully open access journal or platform listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, or in a fully open access conference proceeding.
- The article must be made open access immediately on publication.
- The article must be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.
- The open access fee must not exceed £3,000, excluding VAT. The fund cannot be used to pay towards open access fees that are over £3,000, even where the excess can be paid from other sources.
- Other costs associated with publishing, such as colour charges, overlength charges, cover image charges and submission charges cannot be paid.
- The article must include a data access statement where appropriate.
- The article must acknowledge support from one or more of the UKRI research councils. (Articles acknowledging support from Research England via directly funded projects are eligible, but not those supported via the quality related income received following the REF).
- At least one of the authors must be a member of staff, postgraduate researcher, or emeritus/emerita affiliated to the University of York on the date when the article is submitted for publication. The University of York must be given as the institutional affiliation on the published article.
- The article must be a peer-reviewed research article, or review article.
- The article must be published in one of the following: a fully open access journal listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals; a fully open access conference proceeding; a fully open access publication platform. The Plan S Journal Checker Tool can be used to check eligibility and publication routes.
- The article must be made open access immediately on publication.
- The article must be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence, or under a Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence if an exception has been granted by UKRI (see No-derivatives licence exception form).
- Submission fees can be paid if an open access fee is being paid as well for the same article (i.e. only if the article is accepted for publication and results in open access publication).
- Other costs associated with publishing, such as colour charges, overlength charges and cover image charges cannot be paid.
- The article must include a data access statement where appropriate.
- The article must acknowledge support from Wellcome Trust.
- At least one of the authors must be a member of staff, postgraduate researcher, or emeritus/emerita affiliated to the University of York on the date when the article is submitted for publication. The University of York must be given as the institutional affiliation on the published article.
- The article must be a peer-reviewed research article, research/study protocol, systematic review, scoping review or meta-analysis.
- The article must be published in one of the following: a fully open access journal listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals; a fully open access conference proceedings; a fully open access publication platform. The Plan S Journal Checker Tool can be used to check eligibility and publication routes.
- The article must be made open access immediately on publication.
- Articles must be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence, or under a Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence if an exception has been granted by Wellcome Trust (see Applying for an No-Derivatives (ND) Licence exception).
- Other costs associated with publishing, such as colour charges, overlength charges, cover image charges and submission charges cannot be paid.
- The article must include a data access statement where appropriate.
- The fund can pay for monographs, textbooks, edited collections, or individual book chapters to be made open access immediately on publication.
- The prospective publisher must operate on a fully open access model. Open access publishers will often charge for physical copies of books or for other services, but all new books published by the publisher should be made available in a digital format, in full, for no charge to the reader.
- All requests will be subject to final consideration by the Library and dependent on funding availability.
- Open access publication fees cannot exceed £10,000 (including VAT) for a book (monograph or edited collection) or £1,000 (including VAT) for a book chapter. Charges should be transparently accounted for and must be reasonable in consideration of the length and complexity of the published work.
- The open access fee must not be eligible for payment by a research funder, including via a research grant.
- At least one of the authors must be a member of staff, postgraduate researcher, or emeritus/emerita affiliated to the University of York on the date when the publication contract is signed. The University of York must be given as the institutional affiliation on the published work.
- The work should be published with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence, though where necessary other Creative Commons licences may be used. For further guidance, see Creative Commons for Researchers: a Practical Guide.
UKRI has a centrally-held fund to pay open access fees for UKRI funded books and chapters. If you are planning to publish a UKRI funded book or chapter, you can submit a request via the form that is linked to from this page and the Library will request open access funding from UKRI on your behalf. UKRI will not accept direct requests from authors.
- The publication must acknowledge support from one or more of the UKRI research councils. (Articles acknowledging support from Research England via directly funded projects are eligible, but not those supported via the quality related income received following the REF).
- At least one of the authors must be a member of staff, postgraduate researcher, or emeritus/emerita affiliated to the University of York on the date when the publication contract is signed. The University of York must be given as the institutional affiliation on the published work.
- The publication must be a monograph, book chapter, or edited collection published on or after 1 January 2024.
- The work must be published under a Creative Commons licence. Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) is preferred by UKRI. An Open Government Licence is also permitted when authors are subject to Crown Copyright. For further guidance, see Creative Commons for Researchers: a Practical Guide.
- UKRI will pay a total of £10,000 inc. VAT for a monograph or edited collection and a total of £1,000 inc. VAT for a book chapter.
- Third party rights fees can also be paid, up to a limit of £2,000 inc VAT, if they cannot be paid from a research grant.
Funding for Wellcome funded books and chapters must be requested directly from Wellcome Trust.
Exceptional use of open access funds to pay publication costs to ‘hybrid’ journals
The University encourages researchers to publish in the most appropriate journal for their research. In most cases it will be possible to publish in subscription-based ‘hybrid’ journals and meet open access requirements either through a publisher open access agreement or through the ‘green’ repository route to open access.
In some situations authors may find that recent reductions in publisher open access agreements prevent them from meeting funder open access requirements when publishing in some highly-selective journals. Where this is the case, authors can now apply for internal funding, and if approved the University will make an exception and pay open access publishing fees to hybrid journals.
Funding for this is made available at the discretion of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, with the process managed by the Library, and will be kept under regular review.
Authors are expected to have pursued other options for making their work open access before requesting this exception, including whether the University is able to provide immediate ‘green’ open access through the Research Publications and Open Access Policy. The Open Research Team can advise on options.
To request funding submit the open access funding request form.
Frequently asked questions
Transformative journals (TJs) are journals that have made a commitment to transition from a subscription-based model to being fully open access. Some research funders, particularly those that are members of cOAlition S, adopted this definition in order to encourage and support the transition of journals. cOAlition S funders continued to pay open access fees for TJs for an interim period after they stopped funding open access fees for most subscription journals. From 1st January 2025, cOAlition S funders will no longer fund open access fees in TJs.
UKRI and Wellcome Trust are both cOAlition S members and will not fund open access fees from this date. If you wish to request OA funding for a UKRI or Wellcome Trust funded article in a TJ which has been, or is likely to be, accepted for publication before the end of 2024, please get in touch by emailing lib-open-research@york.ac.uk prior to submitting the YOAF request form.
The institutional open access fund has never paid open access fees in TJs and this remains the case after 2024.
The cOAlition S Journal Checker Tool can be used to identify TJs (at least until the end of 2024).
YOAF is not able to pay any publication fees for PNAS. PNAS offers two publication options, both of which attract a fee. The first is ‘delayed open access’, whereby the paper is initially published behind a paywall and then made open access after six months. The second is immediate open access. Because delayed open access does not meet the definition of open access that the University and funders follow, PNAS does not class as a fully open access journal, and so is not eligible for funding from the open access fund. You should consider carefully before submitting to PNAS whether you are able to pay either of the fees. The only alternative to paying one or other of the fees is to ask PNAS for a waiver.