Open Access guide: OA Fee Discounts & Waivers
Strategies for authors to avoid open access fees
Article processing charges (APCs), or OA author fees, are one method of funding OA publishing, but they are NOT the only method. And there are several ways of avoiding or reducing the OA author fees you pay...
- The University Library now has many agreements and memberships with publishers that offer USask authors full or partial APC discounts - see below for a table listing all of these agreements or use the Journal Search Tool.
- Many OA journals do not charge fees at all! These are known as diamond (or platinum) journals. To find some of these, search in the DOAJ and limit to journals without article processing charges. See the DOAJ Search Tool embedded below.
- You can still publish in a conventional closed journal and make a copy of your article OA for FREE and legally in an open online repository. This is often known as "Green OA" and you can do this through USask's repository HARVEST and in compliance with the Tri-Agency Policy. We now have a free HARVEST Upload Service where library staff will do the upload of your work for you. Other repositories exist too, see the OA Repositories tab on this guide for more information.
- OA fees are generally an acceptable expense in grant funding - so you can budget for them in your grant application.
- Some fee-based OA journals will waive fees if the author is from a low-income country, unfunded, or can demonstrate financial need.
Please note: The Publications Fund administered by the USask OVPR is now discontinued. There is currently no centrally administered fund at USask to pay OA author fees, but some individual colleges or schools may administer their own funds. Check with your unit.
Journal Search Tool for APC discounts
The University Library provides USask authors with full or partial discounts on their open access (OA) article processing charges (APCs) in many journals. This is possible through new agreements we have with various publishers.
This Journal Search Tool helps authors find journals included in these agreements. All current agreements are also listed in a table below.
This is a keyword search so if searching for a known title enter it in quotations. Example: "Journal of Teacher Education"
Find other OA journals through the DOAJ Search
The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a quality-controlled list of open access journals. You can refine your results to journals that do not charge APCs (known as "diamond OA journals").
Open Access Publishing Fee Discounts
The University Library...
- pays for memberships with some OA publishers; this gives USask authors discounts on their OA author fees
- pays for reading access to many conventional journal packages from publishers, so these publishers in return will often give USask authors discounts on OA fees in their hybrid journals*
- participates in "Read and Publish" agreements (also known as "Transformative Agreements") with some publishers; this kind of subscription combines read access for the USask community with ability for USask authors to publish OA in the journals without paying author fees
See the table below for open access author fee discounts or waivers available.
| Publisher | Discount | Timeframe (inclusive) | Instructions/Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Chemical Society | $250 USD | ongoing | USask authors receive a $250 USD discount in OA fees in ACS "hybrid / transformative" journals (doesn't include ACS Central Science, ACS Omega, the ACS Au journals, or other fully OA journals). When completing your online payment form select "Apply Discounts" then search for and select "University of Saskatchewan" as your institution. The $250 discount should then be applied. |
| BioMedCentral/ SpringerOpen | 15% | ongoing |
The University Library pays a membership to BioMedCentral/SpringerOpen which provides this discount for USask authors. The membership is applicable to BMC and Springer fully open access journals only, and does not apply to any Nature Research, Palgrave, or Springer Nature hybrid open access (Open Choice) journals. Authors need to self-identify as USask affiliated and use a USask email. |
| Cambridge University Press (CUP) | 100% |
2022-2024 NOTE: this deal has been renewed for 2025-2026, we are waiting for final details |
USask corresponding authors have unlimited open access publishing with no fees for articles of five research article types, as defined by CUP (research, reviews, rapid communications, brief reports, case reports). This applies to all CUP gold, hybrid, and Research Open journals. Eligibility is based on the affiliation of the corresponding author as entered in the submission process and the APC waiver is coordinated after acceptance by CUP’s automated RightsLink system. |
| Canadian Science Publishing (CSP) - Open Access Pilot for 5 journals | 100% | 2023-2025 |
USask corresponding authors publishing in these five CSP journals do not pay any open access APCs: Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Canadian Journal of Physics, Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, Genome, and Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering. Upon article submission to CSP using ScholarOne, authors provide their institutional affiliation to determine eligibility. For accepted papers by CRKN-affiliated** participants in each of the five journals, the APC is waived automatically. |
| Canadian Science Publishing (CSP) - all other hybrid journals | 25% | 2023-2025 |
USask corresponding authors publishing in all other hybrid CSP journals not in the open access pilot deal (listed above) are eligible for a 25% APC discount. Upon article submission to CSP using ScholarOne, authors provide their institutional affiliation to determine eligibility. NOTE: The following Gold OA journals are not eligible for the 25% discount: Arctic Science, Drone Systems and Applications, and FACETS. |
| Company of Biologists | 100% | 2024-2027 |
USask corresponding authors are able to publish their research articles OA free of charge in these journals: Development, Journal of Cell Science, and Journal of Experimental Biology For step-by-step instructions to authors see this link. |
| Elsevier / ScienceDirect (hybrid journals) | 100% | 2024-2026 |
USask corresponding authors of articles accepted in over 1,800 hybrid journals will receive a waiver for their OA fees. Authors must declare their affiliation with USask at article submission. Several journals are excluded from the APC waiver, such as Cell Press, Lancet, and some other society owned journals. A full list of participating and excluded titles and details about the author workflow is available on the CRKN website. |
| Elsevier / ScienceDirect (gold journals) | 15% | 2024-2026 |
USask corresponding authors receive a 20% discount on APCs from in eligible gold Elsevier journals. Authors must select USask as their affiliation from a drop-down menu during the submission process to be identified as eligible for the discount. Several journals are excluded from the APC waiver, such as Cell Press, Lancet, and some other society owned journals. A full list of participating and excluded titles and details about the author workflow is available on the CRKN website. |
| High Energy Physics journals (SCOAP3) | 100% | ongoing | The University Library participates in the SCOAP3 initiative. Authors of high energy physics articles publishing in journals participating in SCOAP3 do not pay OA fees, retain their copyright, and their articles are immediately OA. See this page for more details. Preprints of articles need to be deposited in one of the "High Energy Physics" categories of arXiv to qualify. Additional processes for qualifying for this fee waiver will vary, see the Guide for Authors or APC Guidelines at each participating journal for details. |
| Institute of Physics (IOP) | 100% |
2021-2024 2025-2027 |
USask corresponding authors are able to publish an unlimited number of articles under an open access license in select IOP hybrid and gold journals at no charge. To qualify for this waiver, authors submit articles to IOP using Scholar1, which includes an autofill field for corresponding authors to indicate their affiliation. Article types included are: papers, special issue papers, reviews, and letters. Most hybrid and gold journals are included in this agreement. A small number of journals are excluded; please contact the library (open.collections@library.usask.ca) for more information. |
| International Water Association (IWA) - only two journals | 100% | 2025 |
USask corresponding authors receive 100% discount (waiver) of APCs when articles are accepted during the agreement years in two IWA journals: Hydrology Research, Water Quality Research Journal |
| MDPI | 10% | ongoing | USask authors receive a 10% discount in OA Article Processing Charges (APCs), OA book processing charges (BPCs), and OA Chapter Processing Charges (CPCs). Authors will be prompted during the last step of submission to determine if they are eligible for the discount (if submitting from within the USask campus IP range this should be automatically selected for authors). More information here. |
| Microbiology Society | 100% | 2024-2026 | USask corresponding authors receive waivers on their OA fees for articles submitted across all the Society’s six journals including Microbiology, Journal of General Virology, Journal of Medical Microbiology, Microbial Genomics, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, and Access Microbiology. Affiliations of corresponding authors will be identified by their email address, so please use your USask email in the submission form to qualify for this deal. FAQs on this agreement here. |
| Oxford University Press Journals (hybrid journals) | 100% | 2024-2026 |
USask corresponding authors of articles accepted in all hybrid journals will receive a waiver for their OA fees. Authors must declare their affiliation with USask at article submission. A full list of participating and excluded titles and details about the author workflow is available on the CRKN website. |
| Oxford University Press Journals (gold journals) | 10% | 2024-2026 |
USask corresponding authors publishing in gold Oxford University Press journals are eligible for a 10% OA fee discount per article. Authors must declare their affiliation with USask at article submission to receive this discount. A full list of participating and excluded titles and details about the author workflow is available on the CRKN website. |
| PLOS | 100% | 2025-2026 |
USask corresponding authors will receive an APC waiver for articles accepted during 2025 & 2026 in these PLOS journals: PLOS Complex Systems, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Digital Health, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS One, and PLOS Pathogens. We are participating in the PLOS "Flat Fee" plan. |
| Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) | 100% | 2025-2027 | All authors affiliated with USask are eligible to receive a 100% discount (waiver) on the OA fee for all RSC journals (hybrid & gold) upon acceptance of manuscript. Authors must select USask as their affiliation from an autocomplete list populated in the online forms and are required to use their USask email address to complete eligibility identification. |
| Royal Society Journals | 100% | 2024-2027 | USask corresponding authors will receive a waiver on their OA fees on articles in all Royal Society journals. During the submission process, state your institution and select the "Read & Publish" option. More information available on their website. |
| Sage Choice (hybrid journals) | 100% | 2024-2026 |
USask corresponding authors of articles accepted in Sage Choice (hybrid) journals will receive a waiver for their OA fees. Starting in 2024, this list includes the RSM, IMechE, and additional Sage journals that were excluded in the previous agreement. Eligible authors will be notified upon article acceptance. A full list of participating and excluded titles is available on the CRKN website. |
|
Sage Gold Open Access journals |
40% | 2024-2026 | USask corresponding authors publishing in Sage gold OA journals are eligible for a 40% OA fee discount per article. Sage will notify eligible authors upon article acceptance. A full list of participating and excluded titles is available on the CRKN website. |
|
Taylor & Francis
|
0% | ongoing | We canceled our T&F journal package at the end of 2019, and re-subscribed to some individual journals. But since we do not have the complete package anymore we do NOT qualify for the OA fee discount for T&F journals as negotiated by CRKN. |
| Wiley (hybrid journals) | 100% | 2025-2026 |
USask corresponding authors publishing in Wiley hybrid OA journals are eligible to receive a waiver for their OA fees for articles accepted during term of agreement. Authors must self-identify as USask-affiliated to receive this discount. Eligible article types are: case study, commentary, data article, education, lecture, method and protocol, perspective, practice and policy, rapid publication, research article, review article, short communication, and technical note. Journals that convert from hybrid open access to gold open access during the term of this agreement remain eligible for the full APC waiver up until at minimum December 31, 2026. |
| Wiley (gold journals) | 10% | 2025-2026 |
USask corresponding authors publishing in Wiley gold OA journals are eligible for a 10% OA fee discount per article accepted during term of agreement. Authors must self-identify as USask-affiliated to receive this discount. Eligible article types are: case study, commentary, data article, education, lecture, method and protocol, perspective, practice and policy, rapid publication, research article, review article, short communication, and technical note. |
*Hybrid journals are conventional subscription journals that allow authors to make their individual article open access for a fee (often a very high fee); whereas gold journals are fully OA and all articles are OA at time of publication often for a fee.
**CRKN (Canadian Research Knowledge Network) is the national consortium through which the University Library subscribes to many journal packages and literature databases
Other Library Supports for Open Collections
The University Library has a dedicated fund to support open collections models, infrastructure, and memberships aligned with the academic community's mission and values. We assess such offers based on our Criteria for Investing in Open Scholarship. These criteria include long-term potential for advancing open scholarship in a more ethical, equitable, and financially sustainable direction.
We currently support:
- Annual Reviews – (S2O)*
- arXiv
- BioMed Central
- Canadiana Online (HCAP Fund)
- Coalition.Publica / Érudit / CRKN Partnership for Open Access (POA)
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
- DSpace
- International Water Association (IWA) Publishing, two journals: Hydrology Research & Water Quality Research Journal (S2O)
- MIT Press Direct to Open eBooks
- Open Book Publishers
- Open Library of Humanities
- Open Policy Finder
- Public Knowledge Project (PKP)
- Research Data Alliance (RDA)
- Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) membership
- SciFree Journal Search Tool
- SCOAP3 Books & Journals
- Software Heritage
- University of Michigan Press Fund to Mission Open Access Monograph Model
- University of Toronto Press – Journal of City Climate Policy & Economy (S2O)
What we’ve supported in the past:
- Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB-OAPEN)
- Dryad
- Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication (via Lyrasis OACIP)
- Language Science Press
- La Referencia
- Open Citations
- Redalyc/AmeliCA
- Research Organization Registry (ROR)
*Subscribe to Open model