Open Access

Information about Open Access to articles and other scholarly texts.

Open Tools from the JH Libraries

The Hopkins Libraries include and maintain open resources in the tools we provide for your use.

Discontinued OA programs

JH Libraries has discontinued some Open Access support programs: 

  • Wiley hybrid journal Open Access APC pilot 2021 - 2023
    • This pilot provided limited APC waivers for some journals in the Wiley portfolio.
    • The agreement did not meet our goals for financial sustainability.
    • We will resume a read-only agreement with Wiley in 2024. Although the APC waiver program is discontinued, the JHU Community will continue to have reading access to all the products JHU has subscribed to in in prior years. 
  • JH Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund (OAPF) 
    • This pilot program provided limited financial assistance to cover APCs from any publisher.
    • After a thorough assessment, the library determined this type of support was not financially sustainable. 
    • Please see our Repositories guide for more information about how the libraries can help researchers make their work open access legally and free.

Do I have to pay to make my publication OA?

No! You do NOT have to pay a publisher a fee to go OA!

Free-to-me pathways

  • Choose a Diamond OA journal (see How to determine the OA model offered by a journal box below to figure out which journals are Diamond).
  • Publish paywalled, assert your author rights, deposit a version in a repository (Green OA).
  • Publish Gold or Hybrid OA if the library provides an APC waiver (see list of covered publishers below).
     

Author paid pathways

  • Publish Gold or Hybrid OA and pay the APC.
     

How to determine the OA model offered by a journal

Places to look:

  • Journal website
    • If it says “fully open access,” it might be Gold or Diamond. If it also mentions Article Processing Charges (APCs), it’s Gold. 
    • If they have a pitch to authors to “select” OA, it’s Hybrid. 
    • If it says nothing about OA, it’s traditional, paywalled access.
  • Sherpa Romeo
  • Cabell’s

Find OA journals or confirm the model in DOAJ

Free Open Access publishing with IOP journals

IOP logo

JHU Libraries has negotiated a transformative agreement granting an unlimited fee waiver in 2023 - 2025 for articles with a JHU-affiliated corresponding author in almost all IOP journals. Please note: American Astronomical Society journals are not included in this agreement.  IOP subject coverage goes well beyond physics—medicine, mathematics, engineering, and other science fields are also included.

Please use your JHU email address when submitting articles in order to avoid delays. All eligible articles will automatically be made OA unless the author opts out. Please see this handy guide to submitting your article: https://publishingsupport.iopscience.iop.org/questions/submit-under-a-transformative-agreement-guide/ 

Questions can be directed to scholcomm@jhu.edu.

Free Open Access publishing with Royal Society journals

JHU Libraries has negotiated an unlimited fee waiver in 2023 for all articles with a JHU affiliated corresponding author in Royal Society journals. All open access articles will be free for JHU corresponding authors, and articles will be automatically deposited in PubMed Central.

Please use your JHU email address when submitting to avoid delays and direct any questions to  scholcomm@jhu.edu.

Free Open Access publishing with ACM journals

JHU Libraries have partnered with the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and hundreds of other universities to contribute toward an open access future for the publisher's entire portfolio by joining the ACM Open program. ACM has committed to flipping journal titles to full open access when 75-80% of articles are published openly. JHU-affiliated authors are now able to publish articles openly for free; all JHU affiliates have unlimited reading access to all articles. After the journals convert to fully open, JHU-affiliated authors will still be able to publish articles open access for free, but everyone in the world will have complete, free access to read. 

Please use your JHU email address when submitting to avoid delays and direct any questions to  scholcomm@jhu.edu.

Free Open Access publishing with Cambridge University Press!

Cambridge University Press logo

The Johns Hopkins University Libraries have signed on to a three year Read & Publish deal with Cambridge University Press in conjunction with the NERL consortium. Johns Hopkins University (JHU) researchers who are corresponding authors can now choose to publish open access in Cambridge University Press journals beginning January 1, 2022--for free! 

The goal of this partnership is to ensure more of JHU’s research is published open access without added costs to the researcher. The agreement includes access to all Cambridge journals and covers article processing charges (APCs) in fully open access or hybrid open access journals.

JHU authors must opt-in to open access upon article submission to take advantage of this deal. Authors can also retroactively ensure articles are open access if not selected initially (2022 articles only). Please use your JHU email address when submitting to avoid delays. Please read submission guidelines carefully; "page charges" and other additional fees are not covered by the APC program described here.

Please direct any questions to  scholcomm@jhu.edu.

Free Open Access Monograph Grants through TOME!

TOME project logo

 

 

 

JHU TOME Monograph Subvention Grants provide funding to Johns Hopkins faculty for the publication of new open-access digital monographs.

Johns Hopkins University joined the Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem (TOME) initiative in 2020 to facilitate greater access to its faculty’s scholarship through open-access publishing. Faculty authors in the humanities and humanistic social sciences are invited to apply for 3 available TOME grants in 2022-23 to support the publication of Open Access monographs. The grants will provide up to $15,000 per academic monograph—paid to a participating university press on the author’s behalf, funding provided by the Office of the Provost—to make a digital copy of the monograph available free of charge under a Creative Commons license through MuseOpen.

For more information about the 2020-22 JHU TOME grant recipients and their work, please see our blog post here.

Details and application form are available at https://www.library.jhu.edu/library-services/scholarly-communication/tome-grant/. We encourage faculty to email tome@jhu.edu with questions. 

Free Open Access Publishing with PLoS!

PLOS Community Action Publishing Program:

Johns Hopkins University (JHU) researchers who are corresponding authors can now choose to publish open access in PLOS Biology or PLOS Global Public Health --for free! 

This program also extends 25% discounts to your corresponding authors from other institutions for papers on which you are a co-author.  

See the FAQ for more details.

Please note: we have discontinued the PLoS Medicine free publication program due to high costs.

 

Free Open Access Publishing with Microbiology Society!

Microbiology Society logo

 

 

Johns Hopkins University (JHU) researchers who are corresponding authors can now choose to publish open access in Microbiology Society Journals--for free! 

Please see eligibility requirements and click here for author instructions. Please use your JHU email address when submitting to avoid delays.

Free Open Access publishing with Company of Biologists!

Company of Biologists logo

 

 

 

 

Johns Hopkins University (JHU) researchers who are corresponding authors can now choose to publish open access in Company of Biologists journals--for free! 

Please click here for information for authors. Please use your JHU email address when submitting to avoid delays.

APC Discounts with Open Access Publishers

Below are several journals that offer some type of discount to JHU authors. Please check publisher's website for the most recent details. Please use your JHU email address when submitting to avoid delays.

  • MDPI - The MDPI Institutional Open Access Program - 10% discount.
  • SpringerOpen - 15% discount on journals in the following collections:
  • PNAS - because JHU pays for a traditional subscription with PNAS, JHU authors are eligible for a 9% ($500) discount if they choose the Immediate Open Access option (the Delayed Open Access option is ineligible for the discount). Please see the PNAS’ Author Center for further information. Note: PNAS will also grant waivers for authors who do not have funding to cover APCs (for example, in mathematics and astronomy, or from lower-income countries). Please note publications in the journal PNAS Nexus are not eligible for the discount.

Authors associated with Hopkins School of Medicine should check the Welch Medical Library page for additional discounts applicable only to SoM authors.