Open access support

Open access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment.

Open access journals are available for nearly every area of research. For help with identifying and evaluating open access journals, contact the library liaison for your subject area or the Scholarly Communications Librarian.

Funding Support

VCU Libraries and VIVA, Virginia’s academic library consortium, have agreements with some publishers that provide VCU authors with full coverage or discounts for open access publishing fees. VCU Libraries also encourages authors to pursue funds from other sources, such as grant or departmental funds, to pay for the full cost of article fees.

VCU authors can make their journal articles open access, immediately upon publication, through the opportunities listed below. For help identifying other open access journals that do not charge publishing fees, contact the Scholarly Communications Librarian.

Publisher	Discount and Eligible Journals	Full Guidelines
American Chemical Society (ACS)	$250 discount for all hybrid ACS journals	View ACS guidelines
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)	Full coverage for all ACM journals, conference proceedings, and magazines	View ACM guidelines
Cambridge University Press	Full coverage for certain fully open access and hybrid CUP journals	View CUP guidelines
De Gruyter	Full coverage for all hybrid De Gruyter journals	View De Gruyter guidelines
International Water Association (IWA)	Full coverage for IWA journals	View IWA guidelines
IOP (Institute of Physics)	Full coverage for most (but not all) hybrid and open access IOP journals	View IOP guidelines
Open Library of the Humanities	All OLH journals	OLH journals have no author fees. Their costs are covered by supporting institutions, including VCU Libraries.
PLOS	Full coverage for all PLOS journals, including interdisciplinary journal PLOS ONE	View PLOS guidelines
Rockefeller University Press	Full coverage for Journal of Cell Biology, Journal of Experimental Medicine, and Journal of General Physiology	View RUP guidelines
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)	Full coverage for all hybrid RSC journals; 15% discount for fully open access journals	View RSC guidelines
Wiley	Full coverage for all hybrid and fully open access Wiley journals	View Wiley guidelines

Previous funding support

The VCU Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund was decommissioned on May 15, 2020.

In 2019, Hindawi discontinued its institutional membership program that previously provided free publishing for VCU authors.

Memberships

VCU Libraries is a member and supporting institution of organizations that advocate for and support sustainable publishing infrastructure for open access books, journals, and educational resources.