Vanderbilt’s Agreements Supporting Open Access Publishing - Author Services - Research Guides at Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt’s Agreements Supporting Open Access Publishing - Author Services - Research Guides at Vanderbilt University
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Vanderbilt University Libraries
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Jean and Alexander Heard Library
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Vanderbilt’s Agreements Supporting Open Access Publishing
Author Services
Open Access Basics
Vanderbilt’s Agreements Supporting Open Access Publishing
Publishing Your Work Open Access
Search for Journals
AIP Publishing Hybrid Journals
American Chemical Society
American Physiological Society
American Society for Microbiology
American Society of Civil Engineers
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
American Thoracic Society
Annual Reviews
ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association)
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
BioMed Central (BMC)
British Medical Association (BMJ)
BMJ Case Reports
Brill
Cambridge University Press
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
The Company of Biologists
Elsevier Imprints - Hybrid Journals
Emerald Hybrid Journals
Future Science (now part of Taylor & Francis)
Future Medicine (now part of Taylor & Francis)
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Institute of Physics (IOP)
JAMA Network (American Medical Association)
Karger
Mary Ann Liebert
Microbiology Society
Nature Publishing Hybrid Journals
Optica Publishing
Oxford University Press Hybrid Journals
Portland Press
Project Muse Selected Journals
Public Library of Science (PLOS)
Rockefeller University Press
Royal Society
Royal Society of Chemistry
SAGE
SCOAP3
SPIE (International Society for Optics and Photonics)
Springer/Adis/Palgrave/Springer Academic Hybrid Journals
Taylor & Francis
Thieme Journals
Walter de Gruyter
Wiley
Wolters Kluwer Lippincott
World Scientific Publishing Hybrid Journals
Federal Agency Sharing Requirements
Selecting a Journal That's Right for You
Author Rights
Open Access Publishing Models
Open Access Myths
Additional Resources
FAQ
Have questions?
Publishing Your Work Open Access
To better support open access publishing for Vanderbilt authors, the Jean & Alexander Heard Libraries has negotiated agreements with many publishers that waive or discount the article processing charge (APC), reducing the barrier to OA publishing. Each agreement varies in terms of included journals, article content types, and the number of articles covered annually. Check the publisher tab for additional details.
Instructions for Authors:
Only articles with a Vanderbilt-affiliated
corresponding
author are eligible. This typically includes current faculty, staff, and students.
To ensure that publishers identify eligible articles, corresponding authors must use a Vanderbilt or VUMC email address
and
should select Vanderbilt University as the affiliated institution.
Articles must be accepted during the term of the agreement and authors must be in eligible status at the point of acceptance.
Color, image, or page fees are not covered and remain the author's responsibility.
Articles are published under a Creative Commons license. License type offered will vary by journal and funding agency requirements.
Each publisher has a unique list of eligible journals. Check the journal finder on this page or the publisher page for additional information.
Certain agreements have a limited number of covered articles. The journal list will indicate if we are getting close to the annual limit or if the agreement is close to expiring. Articles accepted after this number is reached can be published OA through self-funding.
For assistance or to schedule a research consultation, please
Ask a Librarian
Search for Journals
Use this journal search tool to identify journals covered under VU agreements that waive the APC or provide a discount.
Direct link:
New journal finder site coming May 1.
AIP Publishing Hybrid Journals
AIP Publishing Hybrid Journals
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Vanderbilt's agreement with AIP waives the APC for articles published open access in hybrid journals.
American Chemical Society
Vanderbilt's ACS Agreement Page
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Vanderbilt's agreement includes open access publishing in all journals (see note regarding partner journals). Final published articles are sent for deposit in PubMed Central, which is automatically mirrored on Europe PMC. Authors publishing open access under this agreement are also free to deposit the version of record in their institutional and/or research funder’s designated open access repository.
The following journals have waivers available outside of read and publish agreements.
Artificial Photosynthesis
Digital Medical Engineering
Environmental Health Perspectives
Photon Science
Polymer Science & Technology
Artificial Photosynthesis
Chem & Bio Engineering
Digital Medical Engineering
Environmental Health Perspectives
Photon Science
Polymer Science & Technology
American Physiological Society
American Physiological Society Participating Journals
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Ten APS journals will be part of the Subscribe to Open (S2O) offer for 2025. If the publisher's minimal financial threshold is met, all content in these ten journals for the year will be made open without any article processing charges levied on the author. However, APS does charge a flat author fee for all research articles.
American Society for Microbiology
Vanderbilt participates in the ASM's Subscribe to Open (S2O) program, which relies on sufficient institutional subscriptions to convert gated journals to open access volume-by-volume. If enough libraries continue to subscribe to a journal at a level to sustain its operational costs, the current year’s volume becomes open access. If there is not enough support, then the traditional paywall is maintained. No APCs are charged.
American Society of Civil Engineers
ASCE Publishing Policies
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Vanderbilt's has a pilot agreement in 2026 beginning January 1, that waives the article processing charges (APCs) for articles published open access in all ASCE journals. Additional costs, such as page charges or color charges, are not covered under the agreement and remain the responsibility of the author. The corresponding author must be currently affiliated with Vanderbilt University.
During the pilot year, only CC-BY license is allowed.
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
ASME Journal Submission
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Vanderbilt's agreement covers the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing in all ASME journals.
American Thoracic Society
Vanderbilt's agreement starts January 1, 2025 and covers the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing in American Thoracic Society journals. See journal list above for eligible titles. The corresponding author must be currently affiliated with Vanderbilt University.
Annual Reviews
Annual Reviews Subscribe to Open Information
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Annual Review titles will not appear in the journal search as they only accept submission from invited authors and will not charge an APC. However, articles will only become open access after Annual Reviews receives enough funding to support the volume.
Vanderbilt participates in the Annual Review's Subscribe to Open (S2O) program, which relies on sufficient institutional subscriptions to convert gated journals to open access volume-by-volume. If enough libraries continue to subscribe to a journal at a level to sustain its operational costs, the current year’s volume becomes open access. If there is not enough support, then the traditional paywall is maintained.
ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association)
ASHA Publications
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Vanderbilt's agreement covers the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing in ASHA journals. The corresponding author must be currently affiliated with Vanderbilt University.
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
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Vanderbilt's agreement waives the article processing charges (APCs) for an unlimited number of articles by Vanderbilt-affiliated corresponding authors. The following article types in any ACM publication (i.e. - journals, magazines, conference proceedings, etc), are included.
• Research article
• Short paper
• Technical Note / Editorial Note / Note
• Tutorial
• Case Study
• Interview
• Review Article
• Survey Article
BioMed Central (BMC)
BioMed Central Journal Title List
Vanderbilt's agreement provides a 15% discount off article processing charges (APCs), which vary by journal. Visit a journal's homepage to find the APC.
Included content types are Original Paper, Review Paper, and Brief Communication.
British Medical Association (BMJ)
BMJ Author Page
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Agreement includes publishing in all journals. Included article types are research articles and short reports.
BMJ Case Reports
BMJ Case Reports
Vanderbilt's agreement waives fees to publish open access, but authors must provide the institution's fellowship code. The code is available through the link above.
BMJ Case Reports User Guide Instructions
Brill
Brill Open Access
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Vanderbilt's agreement covers the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing of original research articles in all Brill journals. The corresponding author must be currently affiliated with Vanderbilt University.
Cambridge University Press
Vanderbilt's Cambridge Agreement Page
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Agreement includes both gold and hybrid journals. Eligible article types are research articles, review articles, rapid communications, brief reports, and case reports. As of January 2025, this agreement does also covers the Prisms/Research Directions titles which launched in 2024.
Open Access Waivers and Discounts
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To view included journals, select United States and then Vanderbilt University.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
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Vanderbilt's agreement covers the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing in hybrid journals.
Fully peer-reviewed research, review, and case-study articles, accepted for publication, are eligible for Open Access publishing in hybrid research journals, Genes & Development, Genome Research, Learning & Memory, and RNA.
Editorials, comments, protocols, methods, and similar materials are
not
eligible. Articles in CSH Protocols, CSH Perspectives in Biology, and CSH Perspectives in Medicine are commissioned by the editors and do not accept submissions.
The Company of Biologists
The Company of Biologists Journal Title List
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Vanderbilt's agreement includes read access to all content and covers the APC for open access publishing in all journals. Includes article deposit in PubMed Central by CoB on the author's behalf.
Elsevier Imprints - Hybrid Journals
Vanderbilt's Elsevier Agreement Page
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Vanderbilt's agreement began on January 1, 2024 and waives the entire article processing charge (APC) for articles published open access in eligible hybrid journals.
Note that some society and other premium titles are excluded. APCs are waived until the open access tokens for the year have been claimed. Articles published in select gold open access journals are eligible for a 10% discount. Articles in Lancet and Cell Press titles do not receive any discounts or waivers.
Included Article Types: Case Reports, Data in Briefs, Full-length articles, Micro-articles, Original software publication, Practice guidelines, Protocols, Review articles, Replication studies, Short communications, Short surveys, Video articles.
Chrome is the preferred browser for the Elsevier author interface.
If an author wishes to flip an eligible article to open access after publication, they can initiate this by following the directions at https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5997/c/16921/supporthub/publishing/role/author/.
Make your eligible article open access
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If an author wishes to flip an eligible article to open access after publication, they can initiate this by following the instructions on the linked page.
Emerald Hybrid Journals
Emerald Agreement through SCELC Consortium
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The agreement covers open access article processing charges (APCs) for corresponding authors across approximately 310 hybrid journals on a first come, first served basis. It also provides a 5% APC discount for Emerald's ~11 fully open access journals.
The titles published by the Institution of Civil Engineers are excluded under this agreement.
Future Science (now part of Taylor & Francis)
Future Science Journal Title List
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Vanderbilt's agreement began on January 1, 2024 and waives the article processing charge (APC) for articles published open access in all journals.
Future Medicine (now part of Taylor & Francis)
Future Medicine Journal Title List
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Vanderbilt's agreement began on January 1, 2024 and waives the article processing charge (APC) for articles published open access in all journals.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
IEEE
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Vanderbilt's agreement with IEEE commences on January 1, 2024 and waives the article processing charges (APCs) for articles published open access on a first come, first served basis for the first 50 articles. Articles are published under a Creative Commons license.
Institute of Physics (IOP)
IOP Journal Title List
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Vanderbilt's agreement includes all journals in List A, B, C, and D. Some journals charge fees (e.g. image and page charges) that are not covered by this agreement. The author is responsible for paying those fees. Eligible article types are research papers, review articles, special issue papers, and letters.
A Guide to Submitting Under a Transformative Agreement
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Visit this website for detailed instructions on submitting a manuscript.
JAMA Network (American Medical Association)
Vanderbilt's pilot agreement with the AMA commences on January 1, 2025 and waives the article processing charges (APCs) for research articles published open access in most JAMA Network journals. Please see the journal finder for a list of included titles.
"Research article” means these specialty journal article types: original investigations, research letters, and brief reports.
“Research article” also includes these additional article types in JAMA Network Open and JAMA Health Forum: consensus statements, and special communications.
Per publisher,
JAMA
is
not
included in the agreement as content automatically becomes open access after six months. JAMA Network
policy
allows authors to deposit their accepted manuscript in a public repository of their choosing immediately on the day that the manuscript is published by the JAMA Network.
Karger
S Karger Journal Title List
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Vanderbilt's agreement began on January 1, 2024 and includes open access publishing in all journals.
Mary Ann Liebert
Vanderbilt's agreement starts January 1, 2025 and covers the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing in Mary Ann Liebert journals. The corresponding author must be currently affiliated with Vanderbilt University.
Microbiology Society
Microbiology Society Journal Title List
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Vanderbilt's agreement began on January 1, 2024 and includes open access publishing in all journals.
Nature Publishing Hybrid Journals
Nature Agreement Site
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Vanderbilt's agreement begins January 1, 2025 and will apply to eligible articles accepted on or after this date from Vanderbilt corresponding authors. The agreement waives the article processing charges (APCs) on a first come, first served basis in eligible Nature-branded hybrid journals.
Please refer to the journal finder above or the publisher agreement site for the list of eligible journals. Please consult the author FAQ in the agreement link above for more details. To ensure eligibility and that a waiver offer is received, authors should always use their VU or VUMC email when submitting their work.
Optica Publishing
Vanderbilt's agreement with Optica commences on January 1, 2025 and waives the article processing charges (APCs) for articles published open access on a first come, first served basis. Articles are published under a Creative Commons license.
Oxford University Press Hybrid Journals
Oxford University Press Agreements
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Vanderbilt's agreement waives the article processing charge (APC) for articles published open access in hybrid journals and received into OUP production on or after January 1, 2024. Articles are published under a Creative Commons license. Articles published in Gold Open Access journals are eligible for a 10% discount. Per Oxford policy, this discount may not be used in conjunction with any other discount.
Included article types are research article, review article, case report or brief report. For other manuscript types, authors can use this
tool
to check for eligibility.
Portland Press
Vanderbilt's agreement starts January 1, 2025 and covers the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing in Biochemical Society/Portland Press journals.
Project Muse Selected Journals
Vanderbilt participates in Project Muse's Subscribe to Open (S2O) program, which supports open access in some of their journals. The S2O model relies on sufficient institutional subscriptions to convert gated journals to open access volume-by-volume. If enough libraries continue to subscribe to a journal at a level to sustain its operational costs, the current year’s volume becomes open access. If there is not enough support, then the traditional paywall is maintained. No APCs are charged.
Public Library of Science (PLOS)
PLOS Journal Title List
Vanderbilt's agreement includes open access publishing in all journals. Final published articles are sent for deposit in PubMed Central by PLOS on behalf of the author.
Submitting to PLOS for APC-free publishing
Watch this brief video tutorial on how to submit a manuscript and select APC-free publishing:.
Rockefeller University Press
Rockefeller University Press Agreements Page
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Vanderbilt's agreement covers the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing in both gold and hybrid journals.
Royal Society
Royal Society Journal Title List
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Vanderbilt's agreement covers the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing. Where applicable, open access articles are deposited in PubMed Central by Royal Society on the author’s behalf. If authors do not provide details to identify their eligibility at submission, they are not guaranteed to be identified as eligible to publish open access under this agreement.
Royal Society of Chemistry
Royal Society of Chemistry Journal Title List
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Vanderbilt's agreement covers the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing in both gold and hybrid journals. Eligible authors can decline the open access offer and publish under the traditional subscription model instead. If authors do not provide details to identify their eligibility at submission, they are not guaranteed to be identified as eligible to publish open access under this agreement.
If an author decides to convert an article to OA later and within the allowed time period offered by the publisher, they may complete the following application form to choose a CC BY or CC BY-NC license, https://www.rsc.org/journals-books-databases/open-access/open-access-info/voucher-open-access-application/ . Please enter ‘Au-000000’ as your voucher code.
SAGE
Sage Journal Title List
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Vanderbilt's agreement waives the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing.
Upon article acceptance, the corresponding author will receive an email from openaccess@sagepub.com with a subject line of ‘Choose the publication route for your article 10.XXXX/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX’. The corresponding author will have fourteen days to digitally sign the Open Access license. If the license is not signed, then the article will be published in the traditional subscription only format.
All SAGE journals with the exception of those listed below are included in this agreement:
Abstracts in Anthropology
British Journalism Review
Current Bibliography on African Affairs
Index on Censorship
InnovAiT
International Political Science Abstracts
Journal of the ICRU
Pain News
Phi Delta Kappan
Political Insight
All Journals of iMechE
All Journals of the Royal Society of Medicine
SCOAP3
SCOAP3 Journal Author Guidelines
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Vanderbilt's membership supports article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing in all SCOAP3 journals. SCOAP3 covers the APC for all articles published in the following journals: The European Physical Journal C (EPJC); The Journal of High Energy Physics (JHEP); Nuclear Physics B (NPB); Physics Letters B (PLB).
SCOAP3 covers the APC for only high energy physics articles published in the following journals: Acta Physica Polonica B (APPB); Advances in High Energy Physics (AHEP); Chinese Physics C (CPC); Physical Review C (PRC); Physical Review D (PRD); Physical Review Letters (PRL); Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (PTEP).
SPIE (International Society for Optics and Photonics)
SPIE
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Vanderbilt's agreement covers the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing in both gold and hybrid journals.
Springer/Adis/Palgrave/Springer Academic Hybrid Journals
Springer Agreement Title List
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Vanderbilt has an agreement with Springer through the NERL consortium which includes the Springer, Adis, Palgrave, and Academic imprints and will commence on January 1, 2024.
Vanderbilt's agreement waives the article processing charges (APCs) for articles published open access on a first come, first served basis in eligible hybrid open access journals.
Articles are published under a Creative Commons license.
Fully open access journals are not eligible under this agreement.
Taylor & Francis
Vanderbilt's Taylor and Francis (T&F) Agreement Page
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Vanderbilt's agreement began on January 1, 2024 and waives the article processing charges (APCs) for a set number of articles published open access on a first come, first served basis in most T&F journals. See the list of
excluded titles
. Please note that Dove Medical Press titles are
now
included in this agreement.
If the journal has additional costs, such as page charges or color charges, these fees will still apply and will not be covered by the agreement.
The article must be an original research article. Other types of articles such as Editorials, Announcements, and Book Reviews, are not covered by this open access publishing agreement.
Authors must accept the waiver during the article acceptance process. In some cases, an eligible article may be converted to open access after publication. Please submit an
Ask a Librarian
ticket for instructions.
Thieme Journals
Thieme Journals
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Vanderbilt's agreement begins April 1, 2026 and waives the article processing charge (APC) for open access articles accepted on or after that date.
Eligible article types: Original Paper or Review Paper
Walter de Gruyter
Vanderbilt's agreement begins January 1, 2025 and waives the article processing charges (APCs) for articles published open access in eligible Walter de Gruyter titles. de Gruyter offers a mix of open access journal options including Subscribe to Open for some journals. Please refer to the journal finder above for the list of eligible journals and their corresponding model.
Wiley
Wiley and Hindawi Author Page and Journal Finder
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Vanderbilt's agreement began on January 1, 2024 and waives the article processing charge (APC) for a set amount of articles published open access. The APC is waived until the open access tokens for the year run out.
Approved article types: Case Study, Commentary, Data Article, Education, Lecture, Method and Protocol, Perspective, Practice and Policy, Rapid Publication, Research Article, Review Article, Short Communication, Technical Note
Eligible Authors will be able to select from the following Creative Commons licenses, as applicable for the particular journal:
Attribution International (CC BY), Attribution Non-Commercial International (CC BY-NC), Attribution No-Derivatives International (CC BY-ND), or Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivatives International (CC BY-NC-ND). The publication workflow will, whenever possible, direct Eligible Authors to CC BY as the first option if permitted by the applicable journal and its policies.
Wolters Kluwer Lippincott
Lippincott Agreement Page
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Vanderbilt's agreement began on June 26, 2025 and waives the article processing charge (APC) for articles accepted on or after that date and published open access. The APC is waived until the open access tokens for the year run out. Articles are published under a Creative Commons license. Check for more details on a journal's homepage.
Eligible article types: Case Study, Research Article, Review Article
World Scientific Publishing Hybrid Journals
Vanderbilt's agreement begins January 1, 2025 and waives the article processing charge (APC) for accepted articles published open access in
hybrid
journals. Authors who have articles accepted in Publisher-owned fully open access journals are entitled to a 20% discount off the APC. The author must opt-in when the publisher offers it in the Journal Acceptance email. As with all agreements, best practice to be deemed eligible is to use one's Vanderbilt or VUMC email address. More details can be found
here
Authors are responsible for any submission fees, page or color page charges.
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