We are pleased to announce four new publisher agreements that provide a discounted article processing charge (APC) for open access publishing, or full coverage of the APC for UCSF corresponding authors.
Oxford University Press
Effective February 4, 2025, the University of California (UC), together with 20 California State University (CSU) campuses and 30 academic and research institutions represented by the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC), entered into a four-year transformative open access agreement with Oxford University Press (OUP). The agreement provides the UC community with reading access to OUP journals and financial support to UC corresponding authors who publish their work open access. Authors at all ten UC campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) are eligible for this support.
Under the agreement, the UC Libraries provide financial support to UC corresponding authors for the payment of open access publishing fees, also known as article processing charges (APCs):
- UC corresponding authors who publish open access in OUP hybrid (subscription) journals receive an automatic $1,000 contribution towards the APC, along with the option to receive full coverage of the APC for authors who lack research funds to pay the remainder.
- UC corresponding authors who publish in OUP’s fully open access journals receive an automatic flat $750 contribution towards the APC.
Read the press release about the agreement, and find full details about the Oxford agreement, including the article payment process on the Office of Scholarly Communication website.
American Society for Microbiology (ASM)
Effective January 1, 2025, the University of California (UC) and the society publisher American Society for Microbiology (ASM) entered into a one-year agreement that waives the open access publishing fees for UC corresponding authors who publish in ASM’s six primary subscription-based research journals. Authors at all 10 UC campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) are eligible for this support.
The agreement covers the full amount of the open access publishing fees, also known as article processing charges (APCs), for UC corresponding authors who publish in these six ASM journals. Authors must still pay page charges and any supplemental material charges.
Read the agreement announcement and find full details about the ASM agreement, including the article payment process through ASM’s Subscribe to Open business model.
American Physiological Society (APS)
As of January 1, 2025, UCSF corresponding authors of articles accepted in the American Physiological Society (APS)’s 10 primary research journals can publish their articles open access without paying the article processing charge (APC). The APC is covered through UCSF’s subscription to the APS Digital Library, which has adopted a Subscribe to Open model. Authors must still pay the APS’ flat fee to publish according to the article type they are publishing.
Under this model, all 2025 articles published in the 10 journals will be made open access if the publisher meets its subscription targets. Articles with a UCSF corresponding author will be published open access even if the publisher does not meet its targets. For additional details, see Frequently Asked Questions about APS’ Subscribe to Open model.
This agreement covers articles accepted through December 31, 2025.
Copernicus Publications
Copernicus is a non-profit, open access publisher of 37 peer-reviewed journals, with a concentration in the geosciences and space sciences. Copernicus also organizes conferences and publishes the proceedings.
Effective January 1, 2025, the University of California (UC) and Copernicus entered into a one-year agreement that provides financial support to UC corresponding authors who publish open access in Copernicus journals. Authors at all 10 UC campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) are eligible for a 50% discount on the open access article processing charge (APC) in 26 Copernicus journals. Journals that charge a flat APC are included in this discount.
Read the agreement announcement, and find full details about the Copernicus agreement, including the article payment process.
Find all covered journals
Use the UC Journal Open Access Lookup Tool (JOLT) to search for titles covered by a UC-publisher agreement, find out which UC locations are included, and uncover what level of discount or funding is offered.
Note that journals covered by a UCSF-only agreement are not currently included in JOLT. See a complete list of agreements applicable to UCSF at https://tiny.ucsf.edu/publishingdiscounts.
Contact us
Have a question about open access? Interested in an overview for your department? Contact the Scholarly Communication team.