The benefits of open access are manifold:
- greater reach and higher citation rates (impact) for publications
- Copyright of publications remains with the authors
- easier discovery of documents via search engines and other web services
- long-term availability of documents through persistent identifiers (e.g. URN, PURL, DOI)
Under so-called transformation agreements, publishers can publish via Open Access in numerous renowned journals. To further expand the scope of publication, a publication fund is available to cover costs associated with Open Access publications. Via the in-house OPUS publication server, academic materials can be published primarily (Gold Open Access) or archived as so-called secondary publications (Green Open Access).
Are you planning to publish something?
Please contact the Publications Service team.
Transformation agreements
In the context of the open access transformation of academic publishing, so-called transformation agreements – also known as publish-and-read agreements – play a key role.
Under existing transformation agreements, the Publication Fund currently covers all publication fees for articles in hybrid journals. Applications for partial funding of publication fees for articles in gold open-access journals can be submitted to the Publication Fund.
- Duration: 2024–2026
- Hybrid Open Access: Currently, publication in selected journals, magazines and conference proceedings series is available without additional charges.
- Duration: 2024–2028
- Hybrid Open Access: Publication in selected subscription journals (“Core Hybrid”) is currently free of charge; fees in the hybrid Cell Press and The Lancet journals (“CP/TL Hybrid”) are payable by authors.
- Gold Open Access: Publishing in selected open-access journals currently includes a 20% discount on APCs in "Core Gold" journals and a 15% discount on APCs in Cell Press and The Lancet journals ("CP/TL Gold"), to be paid by authors.
- Duration: 2024–2028
- Hybrid Open Access (“Open Choice”): Publishing in selected subscription journals is currently free of charge. Please note: Journals with the “Hybrid (Third Party)” publishing model are not part of the publication component of the contract; fees are to be paid by the authors.
- Gold Open Access ("Fully Open Access"): Publishing in selected open-access journals currently includes a 20% discount on APCs, to be paid by authors.
- Duration: 2024–2028
- Hybrid Open Access (“HOA”): Publishing in selected subscription journals currently without additional fees.
- Gold Open Access ("OA"): Publishing in selected open-access journals currently includes a 20% discount on APCs, to be paid by authors.
- Duration: 2026
- Gold Open Access (“Open Access”): Publication in all Open Access journals currently includes a 10% discount on APCs (further information here, Guide for Authors here), to be paid by the authors.
- Duration: 2026
- Hybrid Open Access: Publishing in selected subscription journals currently without additional fees.
- Gold Open Access: Publishing in the open-access journals European Journal of Psychology Open, Psychological Test Adaptation and Development (PTAD), Rorschachiana – Journal of the International Society for the Rorschach & Sports Psychiatry – Journal of Sports and Exercise Psychiatry currently includes a 25% discount on APCs, to be paid by authors.
- Duration: 2024–2025
- Hybrid Open Access (“SAGE Choice”): Publishing in selected subscription journals is currently available at no additional cost (Guide for authors here).
- Gold Open Access ("Gold OA"): Publishing in selected open-access journals currently includes a 20% discount on APCs, to be paid by authors (Guide for authors here).
- Duration: 2024–2026
- Gold Open Access: Publishing in the open-access journal Science Advances currently includes a 15% discount on APCs, to be paid by authors (details on how the discount is applied can be found here).
- Duration: 2024–2026
- Hybrid Open Access (“Open Select”): Publishing in all Taylor & Francis Open Select journals is currently free of charge.
- Gold Open Access ("Open"): Publishing in all Taylor & Francis Open Journals currently includes a 15% discount on APCs, to be paid by authors.
Publication Fund
At research-intensive universities such as Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, publication fees are driving up the costs of providing academic information due to the rise in open-access publications.
To further expand the publication sector, a budget for expenditure related to open-access publications will therefore be available for the first time at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences from the 2023 financial year. This publication fund amounts to €100,000 and is available with immediate effect, administered by the library.
- The Publication Fund supports open-access publications (Gold, Diamond, transformation agreements) in recognised academic journals.
- In principle, all members of the university are eligible for funding. The focus is on the academic work of researchers, but student research projects may also be funded.
- The Publication Fund is intended exclusively for publications for which no publication grants can be awarded elsewhere, for example by research funding organisations.
- The maximum grant amount is €2,900 (net). Only publication fees (Article/Book Processing Charges, or APCs/BPCs for short) are eligible for funding; no additional costs are covered.
- The funded publication must comply with specific open access requirements (Gold, Diamond, Hybrid only within the framework of existing transformation agreements). Further information is available here. If alternative publication resources funded by third-party grants are available, these must be utilised first (voluntary commitment).
- The published work must be reported to the library, amongst other things to check for secondary publication on the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences repository (OPUS server) and to include it in the university bibliography.
- To be eligible for funding, the applicant or another member of the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences must act as the corresponding or submitting author.
- The publication project must arise from the applicant’s employment or working relationship or context (lecturers, researchers, staff, students).
The binding funding criteria for the Publication Fund can be found here.
Please note that the criteria listed are only valid on a temporary basis. In the medium term, a regulatory framework to be defined in more detail will establish precise funding guidelines governing how the Publication Fund may be used.
The Publication Fund is also used to cover:
- Basic costs arising from open access transformation agreements (e.g. DEAL: Wiley, Springer Nature).
- Funding contributions for Diamond Open Access content (non-commercial publications whose sponsors are researchers or research institutions).
- Author-related publication fees (APCs/BPCs) reported to the library by third parties (publisher dashboards).
- Infrastructure costs for open access content (e.g. hosting the OPUS server).
Please contact publikationsservice(at)
If the publication has already taken place, you can also start by publishing it on the OPUS server.
As of 5 April 2023.
OPUS Publication Server
The OPUS publication server serves as a platform for all members of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences to publish, free of charge, academic materials produced in the course of research and teaching at the university.
The electronic documents are assigned permanent and citable addresses (URNs) and are indexed and made available via national and international library catalogues, search engines and other reference tools.
In this way, the library promotes open and global access to academic publications from Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences in the spirit of Open Access, as well as cross-border collaboration in science and research.
