Shields Library is closed through January 1. Requests for books, digitization services, and interlibrary loan will be fulfilled after the new year.
Open Access Publishing Support
Advancing the Impact of UC Davis Research
Open access publishing offers wider dissemination, higher visibility, and faster discovery of published research.
To promote broad public access to the important work of UC Davis scholars, the University of California (as a system) and the UC Davis Library (individually) provide various forms of funding support to encourage authors to publish open access.
To find help making your research freely available visit this page on the UC Office of Scholarly Communication website (includes an downloadable infographic).
Funding Support and Discounts by Publisher
The University of California has several transformative open access agreements with scholarly publishers that enable UC-affiliated corresponding authors to publish their research open access in journals covered under the agreements at reduced or no cost.
UC funds these open access publishing agreements by repurposing library subscription money; neither the libraries nor the University are incurring higher costs in order to help authors pay for open access publishing.
UC currently has open access agreements with the following publishers (authors can also search for individual journals by using the Journal Lookup Tool):
From January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2025:
- UC corresponding authors can publish open access in an ACS journal by paying a single, discounted article processing charge (APC) of $3,000.
- Authors who do not have research funds available to pay the $3,000 APC can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries.
From January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2025 (extension through 2025 is in process, and articles accepted for publication in the meantime are covered under the agreement):
- UC authors can publish articles and conference proceedings in the ACM Digital Library immediately at no cost to the author. The article publication cost, as well as UC’s subscription to all ACM content, is covered by a bulk fee paid by the UC libraries.
- UC corresponding authors can choose to retain copyright to their articles regardless of open access status.
- ACM will automatically deposit a copy of all UC-authored articles, including those for which the UC author is not the corresponding author, into the UC repository eScholarship.
From January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2024:
- The UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the article processing charge (APC) for UC corresponding authors. Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so.
- Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries.
Under an institutional subscription (fellowship) purchased by the UC Davis Library:
- UC Davis authors can submit articles for free to BMJ Case Reports and BMJ Veterinary Record Case Reports (both journals require a paid fellowship before submission).
- The library’s fellowship does not cover the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing. Authors who would like to publish their case reports open access need to pay the APC through research or other funding.
- The fellowship also includes access to and reuse of all articles published in the journals.
- See the BMJ Case Reports User Guide and Veterinary Record Case Reports User Guide for details.
- For UC Davis only
From January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2025:
- UC corresponding authors receive a 30% discount on fees for open access publishing.
- The UC libraries will then pay the first $1,000 of the discounted fee. Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so.
- Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose can request full funding of the open access fee from the UC libraries.
- The agreement includes most of Cambridge’s 400+ journals, with the exception of some society journals that do not yet offer an open access option.
From January 1, 2021 through January 31, 2024 (renewal in process):
- The UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the article processing charge (APC) for UC corresponding authors. Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so.
- Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries.
From January 1, 2021 through February 29, 2024 (renewal in process):
- The UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the article processing charge (APC) for UC corresponding authors. Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so.
- Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries.
From April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2025:
- Eligible articles by UC corresponding authors in most of Elsevier’s 2,500+ journals will receive a 15% discount on the article publishing charge (the discount is 10% for Cell Press and The Lancet).
- The UC libraries will then pay the first $1,000 of the discounted article publishing charge (APC). Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so.
- Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries.
Under an institutional membership renewed annually since 2020:
- UC Davis authors who publish in any of Frontiers’ open access journals will receive a 10% discount on article processing charges (APCs).
- Because Frontiers journals are all fully open access, UC Davis authors publishing with Frontiers are also eligible for support through the library’s Open Access Fund.
- For UC Davis only
From August 1, 2023 through July 31, 2025:
- UC Libraries will cover the full article processing charge (APC) for articles by UC corresponding authors who publish in one of 20 selected Frontiers journals (Humanities & Social Sciences, and Sustainability sections).
- See what journals are included in the agreement.
From July 15, 2023 to June 30, 2026:
- The UC libraries will pay the full APC for UC corresponding authors.
UC ended the open access publishing portion of its agreement with IEEE effective January 1, 2024, due to low author participation. Funding for page charges will also end at that time. Reading access to IEEE publications will continue without interruption; only UC’s funding support for publishing with IEEE is ending. Read more here.
From July 15, 2022 through December 31, 2023:
- Authors who have research funds available for open access publishing will pay their own open access fee.
- For authors who do not have research funds available to pay the open access fee (also known as an APC), the UC libraries will cover the full cost on their behalf.
- Overlength page charges are covered for all UC corresponding authors, regardless of how they choose to publish.
Under the UC Davis Library subscription to ICE journals:
- UC Davis authors who want to publish open access in any of the ICE journals will receive a 15% discount on article processing charges (APCs).
- For UC Davis only
From December 23, 2019 through January 31, 2024 (renewal in process):
- The UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the article processing charge (APC) for UC corresponding authors publishing in one of JMIR’s 30+ open access journals. Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so.
- Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries.
Under an institutional membership renewed annually:
- UC Davis authors who publish in any of MDPI’s 200+ open access journals receive a 10% discount on article processing charges (APCs).
- Because MDPI journals are all fully open access, UC Davis authors publishing with MDPI are also eligible for support through the library’s Open Access Fund.
- For UC Davis only
Under a publish-and-read agreement renewed annually between the UC Davis Library and the Society:
- UC Davis corresponding authors can publish open access at no cost in all Microbiology Society journals.
- For UC Davis only
From August 1, 2021 through December 31, 2026:
- UC corresponding authors can publish open access in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) for a single, discounted fee of $3,225 per article, which represents savings for the author compared with PNAS’s typical combined page charges and open access publishing fee.
- A flat annual fee paid by the UC libraries provides read access to PNAS at UC institutions and subsidizes this decreased cost of open access publishing for UC authors.
From April 1, 2020 through December 31, 2024:
- The UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the article processing charge (APC) for UC corresponding authors. Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so.
- Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries.
From January 1, 2021 through January 31, 2024 (renewal in process):
- The UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the article processing charge (APC) for UC corresponding authors. Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so.
- Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries.
From January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2024:
- UC corresponding authors will receive a 20% discount on the article processing charge (APC) when publishing in SAGE hybrid journals and a 15% discount when publishing in SAGE fully open access journals.
- The UC libraries will then pay the first $1,000 of the article processing charge (APC) for UC corresponding authors. Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so.
- Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries.
From January 4, 2021 through December 31, 2024:
- The UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the article processing charge (APC) for UC corresponding authors publishing in the Springer portion of the Springer Nature portfolio of journals. Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so.
- Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries.
From August 1, 2022 through December 31, 2024:
- Authors who choose to publish open access in the Nature portfolio of journals will automatically receive a $1,000 contribution to the APC from the UC libraries. Authors must cover the remainder of the APC from their research funds.
- Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose may elect to publish on a subscription basis.
UC institutions have reading access to all journals in the Springer Nature portfolio throughout the entire agreement.
Under UC’s agreement from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2027:
- Article processing charges (APC) for open access articles by UC affiliated corresponding authors will be fully covered under the agreement.
- Authors who published between January 1, 2024 and September 2024 will be contacted by Taylor & Francis and offered to publish open access at no cost or, if they have paid for open access publishing, receive a refund.
Under UC’s agreement from March 1, 2023 to December 31, 2026:
- UC affiliated corresponding authors receive a 15% discount on article processing charges (APC).
- The UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the APC for UC corresponding authors. Authors are asked to pay the remainder if they have research funds available to do so.
- Authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose can request full funding of the APC from the UC libraries.
Other Discounts
Other APC discounts offered to UC authors through University of California memberships or subscriptions can be found on the UC Office of Scholarly Communications website.
UC Davis Library Open Access Funds
Open Access Fund
The Open Access Fund supports members of the UC Davis Academic Senate and Academic Federation, faculty, post-docs, residents, fellows, and graduate students who want to make their journal articles or book chapters free to all readers immediately upon publication. The fund provides eligible UC Davis authors with reimbursement up to $1,000 per article or chapter for open access fees when publishing in fully open access journals or books (in which all articles or chapters are published open access).
Davis Open Access Book Fund
The Davis Open Access Book Fund supports UC Davis Academic Senate faculty and Academic Federation members who wish to publish open access books. Authors under contract for traditional book publication with a university press may apply for funding to release their book on open access terms instead, making it available to readers anywhere in the world, free of charge.