Library and Learning Services
Open access
Open access makes research publications freely available, enabling the results to be read and built on by anyone. Making research outputs open access maximises their public benefit and readership, raises a researcher's profile, and increases the impact of that work. It also allows others to re-use that research, for example, by allowing the content to be analysed with text and data mining.
University Open Publication and Dissemination Policy
We believe that the research produced by the Â鶹ÊÓƵ should be distributed as widely and freely as possible. The latest version of the University's Open Publication and Dissemination Policy lays out how we make this happen. All staff should follow the policy and it applies to research articles, conference contributions, monographs, book chapters and edited collections.
For the first time, we enable our staff to retain the rights to their journal contributions. We also now have requirements for academic books. Further details can be found in our .
Open access publishing agreements
To support all Â鶹ÊÓƵ researchers to publish open access, the University has signed a number of publisher agreements that allow Leicester affiliated corresponding authors to publish primary research and review articles open access, at no additional cost. You can find a list of the main agreements at the bottom of this page. Further details are also on our .
These publishing agreements are known by a number of different terms: read and publish, transformative, or transitional agreements. The terms and conditions of each agreement vary.
Eligibility
- The Journal must be included in the agreement and the article type covered by the agreement.
- The responsible corresponding author must be affiliated to the Â鶹ÊÓƵ. This is the author that completes the online submission and is responsible for signing on behalf of all authors.
- When making the submission to the journal we advise authors to use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address (@leicester.ac.uk) and, if required, the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Ringgold ID 4488.
- Any funding must be properly acknowledged in publisher systems and the paper.
- Articles submitted in the agreements are published under a (CC BY) licence by default. However, where there is a choice of Creative Commons License, you must consider your funders requirements. Most funders including UKRI, Wellcome Trust, BHF, CRUK and NIHR have a requirement for the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.
Gold open access fees
If you are funded by UKRI, Wellcome Trust (WT), British Heart Foundation (BHF) or Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and your journal is not covered by the publisher agreements below, we manage block grants from these funders and may be able to pay the APC. Please use to apply for APC funding, before submitting your paper.
List of publisher agreements
American Chemical Society
Title:
Journals included: all hybrid and fully open access journals.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors.
Instructions for authors: authors should select Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their institution on submission in ACS’s submission system, Paragon Plus. At manuscript acceptance, authors will be directed by ACS to sign the appropriate journal publishing agreement for the deal. ACS will contact the Library for confirmation of affiliation on acceptance for publication.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes, if the author informs ACS of a funder requirement.
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Title:
Journals included: All AIP hybrid subscription journals. Fully open access journals are not included.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors.
Instructions for authors: authors must use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ postal and email addresses when submitting their papers to AIP.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.
American Physical Society
Title:
Journals included: all 9 hybrid Physical Review journals:
- )
- .
Fully open access journals not included.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors.
Instructions for authors: authors should use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address and give Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their affiliation on submission.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.
Additional info: SCOAP3
APS's participation in SCOAP3 is fully considered and integrated into this agreement. Authors publishing their high-energy physics (HEP) research open access under SCOAP3 may continue to do so as usual. The purpose of this arrangement is to provide centrally funded open access publishing services for authors publishing non-HEP research, and as such it complements APS's participation in SCOAP3.
American Psychological Association
Title:
Journals included: All AIP hybrid subscription journals. Fully open access journals are not included.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors.
Instructions for authors: authors must use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ postal and email addresses when submitting their papers to AIP.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.
Annual Reviews
Title:
Â鶹ÊÓƵ authors can publish open access through the Annual Reviews Subscribe to open (S2O) scheme. The model requires sufficient numbers of libraries to subscribe to the journals each year, new volumes are published OA under a Creative Commons license. The publisher will confirm whether the model will operate each year at the beginning of the year.
Annual Reviews publish review articles by invited authors only. The S2O agreement means that, if a certain subscription threshold is reached for each title, that title will be published fully open access for one year. If the threshold is not met, the whole annual issue will be paywalled. However, Annual Reviews have agreed that, if the issue is paywalled, authors may upload their author accepted manuscripts to their so that it is made open access on publication of the issue and under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.
This means that Leicester authors publishing in Annual Reviews are guaranteed a route to making their articles open access, but this might be via the 'gold' route (OA publication in the journal) or 'green' route (OA via our repository), depending on whether the subscription threshold is met. The agreement covers all Annual Reviews journals.
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Title:
Journals included: all ACM journals and conference proceedings.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors.
Instructions for authors: authors should use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address and give Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their affiliation on submission.
BMJ Publishing
Title:
Journals included: Hybrid journals in BMJ’s ‘Standard Collection’. Fully open access journals such as ‘BMJ Open’ are not included.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors. In addition, the paper needs to acknowledge one of the following funders:
- UKRI
- Wellcome Trust
- British Heart Foundation
- Blood Cancer UK
- Cancer Research UK
- Parkinsons UK
- Versus Arthritis.
It is not necessary for the corresponding author to be the holder of the funding. The agreement covers research articles only.
Instructions for authors: when submitting their manuscript to BMJ, eligible authors should enter the University’s (4488) and their funder’s Open Funder ID when prompted into BMJ’s submission system. BMJ will contact the Library for confirmation of affiliation on acceptance for publication.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.
Additional Info: The University does not have a BMJ Case Reports Fellowship.
Cambridge University Press
Title:
Journals included: all hybrid and fully open access journals.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors. included in this agreement: Research Articles, Review Articles, Rapid Communications, Brief Reports, Case Reports.
Instructions for authors: authors should use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address and give Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their affiliation on submission.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.
EDP Sciences Mathematics
Title:
Â鶹ÊÓƵ authors can publish open access through the Mathematics Subscribe to Open (S2O) programme. The model requires sufficient numbers of libraries to subscribe to the journals each year, Following the subscription renewal cycle, a journal joining the S2O programme will publish its newly accepted content in open access as soon as all subscription renewals have been received. Articles are published under a which allows authors to retain the copyright and others to share and adapt the content.
Elsevier
Title:
Journals included: Elsevier hybrid Journals and hybrid titles in the Cell Press and Lancet journal collections. Find participating journals through the on the Elsevier website.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors. Article types included: 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
When publishing in eligible journals from The Lancet, full length articles are the only eligible article type.
Instructions for authors: Once your article has been accepted for publication in a , you will receive an email containing a link to the “post-acceptance author journey”. Upon selecting your publishing options, your affiliation will be validated by your institution, and you will be informed if the APC will be covered by the agreement.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.
Additional Discount: Elsevier's fully gold open access journals will receive a 15% discount on the Article Processing Charge (APC). Ensure funds to pay the remaining APC are secured before submission.
European Respiratory Society (ERS)
Title:
Journals included: European Respiratory Journal, European Respiratory Review and ERJ Open Research.
Eligibility: Have a corresponding author whose email address (on their ScholarOne account and the to-be-published article) is issued by the Â鶹ÊÓƵ. Be any article type other than a European Respiratory Journal Editorial, an official ERS document or an article which ERS is prevented from publishing open access by another rightsholder.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.
Additional Info: None.
IEEE
From 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027, the Â鶹ÊÓƵ is part of the with IEEE.
Hybrid/Subscription Journals
This agreement allows all Leicester authors publishing in any IEEE journal, magazine or conference proceeding to apply a CC BY license to the accepted manuscript (AM) and make it available in the Leicester Research Archive (LRA), green open access, immediately on publication. Key points:
- All authors can self-archive their accepted manuscripts submitted to any of the subscription-based IEEE journals, magazines, or conference proceedings
- All authors will be allowed to immediately self-archive accepted manuscripts with no embargo based on publication date
- To be self-archived in an institutional or subject-based repository (as listed on OpenDOAR), with a self-attributed CC BY license
- Valid for all authors from subscribing institutions, including TNE
- Regardless of funder background or institutional rights retention policies.
Gold OA in IEEE journals
The University has no central institutional open access funding to pay for Gold Open Access.
The use of UKRI or Wellcome Trust open access block grants to pay for open access in is not permitted. The green OA option above meets all requirements.
We are able to use the UKRI or Wellcome Trust open access block grants for - see above 'apply for open access funds'. Further on UKRI and Wellcome open access policies.
On submission
Authors should also ensure they include a data access statement in the manuscript - visit our for further information on data access statements.
John Benjamins
Title:
Journals included: all hybrid journals.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors. Research articles only.
Instructions for authors: authors should use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address and give Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their affiliation on submission.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes. if required by funder. It is recommended that authors discuss this requirement with John Benjamins, if it pertains.
Microbiology Society
Title:
Journals included: any Microbiology Society journal.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors.
Instructions for authors: authors should use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address and give Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their affiliation on submission.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.
Oxford University Press
Title:
Journals included: 500+ fully Open Access and hybrid journals, use the journal search .
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors. Article type: research article, review article, brief report or case report. Not Eligible: Book reviews and publishing your article in a Supplement.
Instructions for authors: authors should use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address and give Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their affiliation on submission.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.
Additional discounts: none.
PLOS
Title:
Journals included: 10 PLOS journals, these are:
- PLOS Aging and Health
- PLOS Complex Systems
- PLOS Computational Biology
- PLOS Digital Health
- PLOS Ecosystems
- PLOS Genetics
- PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
- PLOS Medicine
- PLOS ONE
- PLOS Pathogens.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors.
Instructions for authors: authors should use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address and give Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their affiliation on submission.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.
Additional discounts: none.
The Royal Society
Title:
Journals included: all Royal Society journals.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors.
Instructions for authors: authors must select Â鶹ÊÓƵ (Ringgold ID 4488) as their affiliation in the The Royal Society's manuscript submission system (ScholarOne).
Europe PubMed Central deposit : yes.
Additional discounts: none.
Royal Society of Chemistry
Title:
Journals included: all RSC hybrid journals. Fully open access journals not included.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors.
Instructions for authors: authors should use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address and give Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their affiliation on submission.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: for articles funded by .
Additional discounts: 15% discount on APCs for Leicester submitting corresponding authors in all RSC fully open access journals. Ensure funds to pay the remaining APC are secured before submission.
Sage
Title:
Journals included: 900+ hybrid subscription journals in the , as well as in the and the , which offer hybrid open access publishing (SAGE Choice). Charges other than the author article process charge (APC) may still apply, please refer to individual journal submission guidelines.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors. Article type: Research article.
Instructions for authors: authors should use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address and give Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their affiliation on submission. SAGE will contact all eligible authors to inform them of the Open Access agreement and to invite them to the SAGE Open Access Portal to take up the offer as soon as their accepted article has been received into SAGE's Production department.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.
Additional discounts: Corresponding authors publishing in most open access journals can receive a 20% discount on the open access APC price. Click here for the current participating .
Springer Nature
Title:
Journals included: 2,000+ Springer portfolio (Springer, Palgrave and Academic journals) Open Choice hybrid journals and Nature portfolio (Nature Research journals EXCEPT Nature Reviews, Nature Protocols, and SciAM). Articles in fully open access journals are not included
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors. Article type: Research article.
Instructions for authors: authors should use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address and give Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their affiliation on submission.
Europe PubMed Central deposit : yes.
Additional discounts: Fully Open Access Journals (BMC, Nature, Palgrave Macmillan and Springer Open) receive 15% discount on the article processing charge (APC). Ensure funds to pay the remaining APC are secured before submission.
Taylor and Francis
Title:
Journals included: All Taylor & Francis fully open access and Open Select (hybrid) journals, as well as F1000Research and Routledge Open Research.
Eligibility: Leicester submitting corresponding authors. Article type: original research articles. Other types of paper, such as Editorials, Announcements, and Book Reviews, are not covered by this agreement.
Instructions for authors: authors should use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address and give Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their affiliation on submission.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.
Additional Info: None.
Wiley
Title:
Journals included: any of Wiley's fully gold Open Access journals, or any of their hybrid journals without incurring any additional charges. .
Eligibility:Leicester submitting corresponding authors. Article type: primary research and review articles.
Instructions for authors: authors should use their Â鶹ÊÓƵ email address and give Â鶹ÊÓƵ as their affiliation on submission.
Europe PubMed Central deposit: yes.