If you’ve ever published a journal article, you’ve likely encountered journals that have article processing charges (APCs). APCs are charged by some (but certainly not all!) open access journals. Paying an APC is also an option with many subscription-based journals. At these “hybrid” journals, articles are paywalled by default but made open access if an APC is paid.

Over the years, many Graduate Center researchers have used grant funds to pay APCs. And many simply have not been able to publish in journals where APCs are required. However, institutional open access agreements are increasingly common. In these arrangements, often called “read and publish” deals, a library enters a contract that includes both (a) access to the publisher’s paywalled content and (b) coverage of APCs for affiliated authors. There are several variations on this model, and many agreements are priced prohibitively for the Graduate Center and/or CUNY, but we do now have three open access arrangements with publishers:

• Oxford University Press: Any Graduate Center affiliate (student, faculty, or staff) who is the corresponding author of an article (research article, review article, brief report, or case report) accepted for publication by Oxford University Press can opt to make that article open access at no cost to the author(s). Learn more about the Oxford agreement.
  • Note: The corresponding author must list the GC as their primary affiliation when submitting their manuscript.
• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM): All accepted articles that have a Graduate Center affiliate (student, faculty, or staff) as the corresponding author will be made open access at no cost to the author(s). This is true for ACM journals, conference proceedings, and magazines. Learn more about the ACM agreement.
  • Note: The corresponding author must use their GC email address in order for the system to recognize the article as GC-affiliated.
  • Beyond the GC: Several other CUNY campuses also offer this ACM arrangement: Borough of Manhattan Community College, Brooklyn College, City College, Hunter College, John Jay College, Queens College, and York College.
• American Chemical Society (ACS): Any CUNY affiliate (student, faculty, or staff) who is the corresponding author of an article accepted for publication by ACS can opt to make that article open access at no cost to the author(s). Unlike the Oxford and ACM arrangements, this deal is CUNY-wide and benefits all CUNY authors of ACS articles. Learn more about the ACS agreement.
  • Note: The corresponding author must list their CUNY campus as their primary affiliation when submitting their manuscript.

At this time, these are the only institutional open access agreements available to authors whose sole CUNY affiliation is the Graduate Center (e.g., central-line faculty). If you’re affiliated with multiple CUNY campuses, some additional agreements may apply to you — e.g., some campuses have an open access agreement with Cambridge University Press. However, if you’re interested in publishing with other publishers, as most of you probably are, it’s very likely that you can still make your articles open access at no cost!

How? The vast majority of subscription-based journals allow authors to post (or “self-archive”) their own articles online. Some allow authors to self-archive the final, published version of the article. Others allow self-archiving of the accepted manuscript and/or the submitted manuscript. Some journals allow authors to self-archive their articles immediately, while others require a delay (“embargo”) after publication.

To determine what a specific journal allows, carefully read its article publication contract (sometimes called the “author agreement” or “copyright transfer agreement”), or use the tool Open Policy Finder, which provides helpful distillations of most journals’ self-archiving policies.

If you do have the right to share some version of your article online, a great place to post it is CUNY’s open access repository, CUNY Academic Works, which collects and provides cost-free access to the scholarly, creative, and pedagogical works of the CUNY community. CUNY Academic Works is well indexed by CUNY OneSearch, Google Scholar, and other search tools and thus boosts discoverability of your work as well. Learn more about CUNY Academic Works.

Curious about open access journals that don’t have APCs? The Directory of Open Access Journals, an index of open access journals that have been vetted for transparency and adherence to good publishing practices, currently includes 22,084 journals, 13,912 of which do not charge APCs or other author-facing fees.

Questions about journal publishing or open access? Consult the library’s Scholarly Publishing guide or contact Jill Cirasella, Scholarly Communication Librarian and University Liaison, at [email protected].

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