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.
  • JISC Open Policy Finder
  • Cabell’s

Find OA journals or confirm the model in DOAJ

Open Access at JHU

Publisher

Article Processing Charge (APC) Waiver/Discount

Eligibility

ACM Journals

APC Waiver

Active/current JHU faculty/staff/student who is the Corresponding Author

ASM Journals

Stay Tuned!

Stay Tuned!

APS Journals

Stay Tuned!

Stay Tuned!

Biochemical Society

APC Waiver
(Effective January 1, 2025)

Active/current JHU faculty/staff/student who is the Corresponding Author

Eligible journals include:  Biochemical Journal, Clinical Science, Biochemical Society Transactions, Essays in Biochemistry, Emerging Topics in Life Sciences, and Bioscience Reports

BioMed Central and SpringerOpen Journals

15% Discount

Active/current JHU faculty/staff/student who is the Corresponding Author

BMJ Case Reports

Discount

Discount available for BMJ Case Reports only (BMJ journals are not covered by this arrangement)

Fellows and residents who submit articles for publication will need to provide Johns Hopkins University Hospital Fellowship membership.

Cambridge University Press

APC Waiver

Active/current JHU faculty/staff/student who is the Corresponding Author.

Eligible articles types include: research articles, review articles, rapid communications, brief reports, and case reports

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

APC Waiver + Standard OA Fee will be reduced from $3,700 USD to $2,035 USD

Active/current JHU faculty/staff/student who is the Corresponding Author.

Eligible CSHL journals include:  Genes & Development, Genome Research, RNA, and Learning & Memory

Company of Biologists’ Journals

APC Waiver

Active/current JHU faculty/staff/student who is the Corresponding Author

Eligible journals include:  Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology, Disease Models & Mechanisms, and Biology Open

IOP Journals

APC Waiver

Active/current JHU faculty/staff/student who is the Corresponding Author

N.B.: American Astronomical Society journals are not included in this agreement

The JH Libraries Open Monograph Initiative (JHLOMI) Provides funding to Johns Hopkins faculty for the publication of new open-access digital monographs.

Faculty authors in the humanities and humanistic social sciences at Johns Hopkins are invited to apply for JHLOMI grants to support the publication of open access monographs. Previously branded as "TOME," the grants provide up to $15,000 per academic monograph—paid to a participating university press on the author’s behalf with 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.

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

MDPI

10% Discount

Active/current JHU faculty/staff/student who is the Corresponding Author or Contributing Author

Microbiology Society Journals

APC Waiver

Active/current JHU faculty/staff/student who is the Corresponding Author

Eligible journals: Access Microbiology, Microbial Genomics, Journal of Medical Microbiology, Journal of General Virology, and International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

PLoS

APC Waiver / 25% Discount

Active/current JHU faculty/staff/student who is the Corresponding Author

Eligible journals: PLoS Biology and PLoS Global Public Health,

This program extends a 25% discount to your corresponding authors from other institutions where you are a co-author

PNAS

9% Discount

Active/current JHU faculty/staff/student who is the Corresponding Author, if they choose Immediate Open Access publication option in PNAS. There is no discount for the Delayed Open Access option and for the journal PNAS Nexus

Royal Society Journals

APC Waiver

Active/current JHU faculty/staff/student who is the Corresponding Author

Royal Society of Chemistry

Stay Tuned!

Stay Tuned!

Green Pathways

Article Processing Charges (APC)

How To …

bioRxiv

None!

Deposit your biology preprint in the bioRxiv preprint server

Green OA

None!

Publish in a subscription only journal and ask the publisher for permission to deposit your Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM) in a digital repository

medRxiv

None!

Deposit your health sciences preprint in the medRxiv preprint server

Peer Community In (PCI)

None!

Deposit your preprint in an online preprint server like bioRxiv and request that PCI peer review your preprint.

PCI peer-reviewed preprints can expedite your publication from preprint to journal article with PCI-friendly journals.

Diamond Open Access

Article Processing Charges (APC)

How To …

Peer Community Journal

None!

When your preprint is peer reviewed by PCI, it can be expedited to publication in PCI’s diamond OA journal “Peer Community Journal”.