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Open Access Publishing

This guide describes Open Access (OA) and presents options for OA publishing, including assistance with APCs and avoiding predatory publishers.

Open Access Opportunities Through University Libraries

In addition to being a funding partner and the administrator of the KSU Open Access Publishing Fund, University Libraries provides open access publishing opportunities through our collections. See below for details on our existing agreements with:

Cambridge University Press - Read and Publish

University Libraries' existing Cambridge University Press (CUP) electronic journals deal via OhioLINK includes open access publishing opportunities for Kent State faculty, students, and staff.

Term: January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2024 ***Please note, as of mid-December 2024 we do not have a renewal agreement with CUP. We are optimistic that this agreement will be extended and users will not see any disruptions.***

Includes: Online access to all CUP e-journals. Unlimited open access publishing in over 400 CUP e-journal with an open access option. Many CUP titles utilize a gold OA or hybrid OA model.

Cost: Publishing costs are included via UL's agreement. All Article Processing Charges (APCs) are waived for authors!

Eligibility: Date of article acceptance must fall within our existing agreement. Eligibility is based on the corresponding author on the article submission. The corresponding author must have a KSU affiliation. If you are not the corresponding author but are collaborating with colleagues from another Ohio university, they may also be eligible through OhioLINK. Authors are encouraged to use the email address with their school domain (example: name@kent.edu) for ease of eligibility determination.

Process: After article acceptance, the corresponding author will be given the opportunity to indicate they would like the article to be published as open access. CUP will contact eligible authors who have not chosen open access in an effort to get those articles converted to open.

Our partners at OhioLINK have created a detailed information page about this agreement.

Elsevier - Hybrid Publishing

University Libraries' existing Elsevier electronic journals deal via OhioLINK includes open access publishing opportunities for Kent State faculty, students, and staff.

Term: January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2027

Includes: Online access to OhioLINK's Elsevier e-journals package. Limited/capped open access publishing in over 1,800 hybrid journals included in the OhioLINK Elsevier package (with the exclusion of Cell Press and Lancet titles). Elsevier has provided a tool to lookup journal eligibility as part of this agreement.

Publishing support in Elsevier's fully open access journals is not included in this agreement.

Cost: Publishing costs are included via UL's agreement. All Article Processing Charges (APCs) are waived for authors until the article cap is reached. Once the annual cap is reached, all publishing benefits expire.

Eligibility: Date of article acceptance must fall within our existing agreement. Eligibility is based on the corresponding author on the article submission. The corresponding author must have a KSU affiliation. If you are not the corresponding author but are collaborating with colleagues from another Ohio university, they may also be eligible through OhioLINK. Authors are encouraged to use the email address with their school domain (example: name@kent.edu) for ease of eligibility determination.

Publishing Limit: This statewide agreement includes a limit on the number of open articles that can be published with waived APCs per year. This limit is spread equally between cohorts across the state. While this ensures KSU affiliates will have a fair opportunity to take advantage of the agreement, it does not guarantee the limit has not been reached at time of article acceptance.

***The publishing cap for 2024 has been reached. The cap will reset on 1/1/25.***

Process: After article acceptance, the corresponding author will be given the opportunity to indicate they would like the article to be published as open access under this agreement. If the OhioLINK-wide article cap has been reached, this option will not be available to authors. Elsevier has provided a custom page about the process for OhioLINK authors.

Our partners at OhioLINK have created a detailed information page about this agreement.

Institute of Physics - Read and Publish

University Libraries' existing Institute of Physics (IOP) electronic journals deal via OhioLINK includes open access publishing opportunities for Kent State faculty, students, and staff.

Term: January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025

Includes: Online access to all IOP e-journals including titles from the Electrochemical Society (ECS). Unlimited open access publishing in over 100 IOP e-journals with an open access option. Many IOP titles utilize a gold OA or hybrid OA model.

Cost: Publishing costs are included via UL's agreement. All Article Processing Charges (APCs) are waived for authors!

Eligibility: Date of article acceptance must fall within our existing agreement. Eligibility is based on the corresponding author on the article submission. The corresponding author must have a KSU affiliation. If you are not the corresponding author but are collaborating with colleagues from another Ohio university, they may also be eligible through OhioLINK. Authors are encouraged to use the email address with their school domain (example: name@kent.edu) for ease of eligibility determination.

Process: After acceptance, IOP will automatically publish articles as OA by default within any eligible IOP journal covered by this deal.

Our partners at OhioLINK have created a detailed information page about this agreement.

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) - Read and Publish

University Libraries’ journals subscription agreement with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) includes access to all RSC journals and open access publishing opportunities for Kent State faculty, students, and staff.

Term: January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025

Includes: Online access to all 50+ RSC e-journals plus archival access to the complete backfile of past publications. Unlimited open access publishing in any RSC e-journal with an open access option. Most RSC titles utilize a gold OA or hybrid OA model.

Cost: Publishing costs are included via UL's agreement. All Article Processing Charges (APCs) are waived for authors!

Eligibility: Date of article acceptance must fall within our existing agreement term. Eligibility is based on the corresponding author on the article submission. The corresponding author must have a KSU affiliation for the article to be eligible.

Process: There are several steps to ensuring a smooth publishing process through our RSC agreement.

  • The corresponding author must take some steps to identify themselves as an eligible KSU affiliated person:
    • Please use your Kent State email address (example: name@kent.edu).
    • Make sure you are listed as the corresponding author within RSC’s online submission system and on your manuscript.
    • For your manuscript submission, clearly state your institution affiliation is Kent State and include your Kent State email address.
  • If the above steps are taken, the RSC online submission system should recognize you as an eligible Kent State author and provide you with the appropriate open access publishing options.
  • After article acceptance, authors should not sign RSC’s standard publishing license. You should be given the option to choose an open access Creative Commons license (i.e., CC BY or CC BY-NC) for your article.

Springer - Hybrid Publishing

University Libraries' existing Springer electronic journals deal via OhioLINK includes open access publishing opportunities for Kent State faculty, students, and staff.

Term: January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2026

Includes: Online access to OhioLINK's existing Springer e-journals package plus new access to 700+ titles (including Palgrave, Aldis, and academic titles on nature.com). The agreement provides limited/capped open access publishing in over 2,000 hybrid journals.

This agreement does not cover access or publishing in Springer Nature titles such as Nature or Scientific American.

Publishing support in Springer's fully open access journals is not included in this agreement.

Cost: Publishing costs are included via UL's agreement. All Article Processing Charges (APCs) are waived for authors until the article cap is reached. Once the annual cap is reached, all publishing benefits expire.

Eligibility: Date of article acceptance must fall within our existing agreement. Eligibility is based on the corresponding author on the article submission. The corresponding author must have a KSU affiliation. If you are not the corresponding author but are collaborating with colleagues from another Ohio university, they may also be eligible through OhioLINK. Authors are encouraged to use the email address with their school domain (example: name@kent.edu) for ease of eligibility determination.

Publishing Limit: This statewide agreement includes a limit on the number of open articles that can be published with waived APCs per year. This limit is spread equally between cohorts across the state. While this ensures KSU affiliates will have a fair opportunity to take advantage of the agreement, it does not guarantee the limit has not been reached at time of article acceptance.

Process: After article acceptance, the corresponding author will be given the opportunity to indicate they would like the article to be published as open access under this agreement. If the OhioLINK-wide article cap has been reached, this option will not be available to authors.

Our partners at OhioLINK have created a detailed information page about this agreement.

Wiley - Read and Publish

University Libraries' existing Wiley electronic journals deal via OhioLINK includes open access publishing opportunities for Kent State faculty, students, and staff.

Term: January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2026

Includes: Online access to all Wiley e-journals. Limited/capped open access publishing in over 1,800 Wiley titles with an open access option. Many Wiley titles utilize a gold OA or hybrid OA model.

Cost: Publishing costs are included via UL's agreement. All Article Processing Charges (APCs) are waived for authors until the article cap is reached. Once the annual cap is reached, Wiley will give a 10% discount to authors who would still like to publish open access.

Eligibility: The eligibility determination for Wiley journals depends on the type of journal:

  • Submissions in Gold / fully OA titles: Date of article submission must fall within our existing agreement.
  • Submissions in Hybrid titles: Date of article acceptance must fall within our existing agreement.

Eligibility is based on the corresponding author on the article submission. The corresponding author must have a KSU affiliation. If you are not the corresponding author but are collaborating with colleagues from another Ohio university, they may also be eligible through OhioLINK. Authors are encouraged to use the email address with their school domain (example: name@kent.edu) for ease of eligibility determination.

Publishing Limit: This statewide agreement includes a limit on the number of open articles that can be published with waived APCs per year. This limit is spread equally between cohorts across the state. While this ensures KSU affiliates will have a fair opportunity to take advantage of the agreement, it does not guarantee the limit has not been reached at time of article acceptance.

***NOTE: As of mid-November 2024, only 10% of our annual publishing remains.***

Process: After article acceptance, the corresponding author will be given the opportunity to indicate they would like the article to be published as open access under this agreement. If the OhioLINK-wide article cap has been reached, this option will not be available to authors.

Our partners at OhioLINK have created a detailed information page about this agreement.