Publisher Agreements
Agreements to reduce the costs of open access publishing.
Transformative open access agreements
Our transformative agreements allow university staff and students who act as corresponding authors to publish their research articles as open access without additional charges. Please be aware that the eligibility criteria for these agreements vary and that the agreements the university participates in are subject to change.
Some agreements limit the number of papers that may be made open access. Where this applies papers with corresponding authors who are an honorary member of staff, visitor, or otherwise affiliated with linked organisations (eg NHS trusts) will only be approved if specific funding is acknowledged (from UKRI, Wellcome Trust, Blood Cancer UK, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Parkinson's UK or Versus Arthritis). Where this restriction applies this is noted in the agreement details below.
Where the publisher agreement offers authors a choice of licence we recommend you choose CC BY to maximise the potential for reuse. UKRI and Wellcome funded authors must select the CC BY licence to comply with their funders' policies on open access.
If you have any questions about your eligiblity for these agreements or how they work in practice, please contact the open access team.
Our transformative agreement with the American Chemical Society (ACS) provides open access at no additional charge for corresponding authors of research articles in all ACS journals, including ACS Omega and all ACS subscription journals.
Type of journal: ACS subscription journals and fully open access journals.
Type of publication: All research articles.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Submit your manuscript using your Newcastle University email address and select this as your institution in Paragon Plus. This will allow ACS to identify you as eligible for the agreement.
- On acceptance ACS will send you an email asking you to complete the Journal Publishing Agreement (JPA).
- When doing so you should be informed that their systems have identified that we have an agreement with ACS.
- Select the option “Yes I wish to publish open access as per the agreement” and complete the JPA signing process.
- Your open access funding request is automatically sent to us for review.
- Once we have approved your request you will receive a confirmation email and your article will be published as open access.
Information from the publisher: How to Publish Open Access Under a Read + Publish Agreement
Our transformative agreement with the American Institute of Physics (AIP) allows corresponding authors affiliated with Newcastle University to publish research articles as open access in AIP's subscription journals at no cost.
Type of journals covered: Subscription journals offering optional open access (Author Select) only. AIP fully open access journals are not included.
Restrictions: The agreement is subject to an annual cap on the number of papers that can be approved. Therefore honorary or visiting members of staff are only eligible to use this agreement where the paper acknowledges funding from UKRI, Wellcome Trust, Blood Cancer UK, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Parkinson's UK or Versus Arthritis.
Should the article cap be reached authors can publish as subscription and provide open access via the green route or pay a discounted rate for open access.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Use your university email and address during the submission process
- You’ll be asked to select your institutional affiliation by clicking on the 'Validate Instutition' button, as part of the submission process. After selecting 'Newcastle University' the page should indicate that we have an agreement with AIP.
- Select the option "Open Access as part of an institutional agreement"
Information from the publisher: AIP Read & Publish Author Guidelines
Our transformative agreement with the American Physiological Society (APS) provides unlimited open access publishing for our corresponding authors in all 12 of their subscription journals. It also offers a free one-year membership of the American Physiological Society (for new members only).
Type of journals covered: subscription (hybrid) only.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Use your Newcastle University affiliation, @newcastle.ac.uk email address and ORCiD when you submit.
- Select Newcastle University from the dropdown field. This allows the publisher to identify your paper as being eligible for the agreement.
- Choose the open access option "I wish to publish OA as part of an institutional agreement".
- On acceptance APS will notify the author that their work can be published under an open CC-BY license without additional charges.
Information from the publisher: APS Read, Publish and Join for Authors
Our transformative agreement with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) provides unlimited open access publishing for our corresponding authors in ACM journals and conference proceedings.
Type of journals covered: ACM journals and conference proceedings in the ACM Open Program
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Use your Newcastle University affiliation and @newcastle.ac.uk email address when you submit. This allows the publisher to identify your paper as being eligible for the agreement.
- Completes the eRights form (your affiliation will confirm you are from an institution participating in ACM Open and you will be presented with the default CC BY 4.0 licence).
- After confirming the licence click the Proceed button allowing ACM to publish the work.
- Complete the additional information requested and add funder details if applicable.
- Click Submit.
Information from the publisher: ACM OPEN (ACM’s Transformative Model for Open Access Publication)
Our transformative agreement with Bioscientifica provides corresponding authors with open access at no extra cost when publishing in one of their five subscription journals (Journal of Endocrinology, Journal of Molecular Endocrinology, Endocrine-Related Cancer, European Journal of Endocrinology and Reproduction).
Type of journals covered: Subscription journals only. Fully open access journals are not included in this agreement.
Instructions for corresponding authors
You must use your official Newcastle University email addres to qualify for free open-access publishing through this agreement.
Information from the publisher: Free open-access publishing - Are you eligible?
Our transformative agreement with BMJ offers open access at no additional cost to our corresponding authors publishing funded primary research articles (not reviews, commentaries or rapid communications) in 34 hybrid (subscription) journals and 23 fully open access Gold journals. Articles reporting research funded by the Wellcome Trust, a UK Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Blood Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK, Parkinson’s UK or Versus Arthritis are eligible for this agreement.
Type of journals covered: BMJ subscription journals and fully open access journals.
Type of publication: Refer to list 'Download 2023 Eligible Article Types'
Restrictions: Articles must acknowledge funding from UKRI, Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation, Blood Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK, Parkinson’s UK or Versus Arthritis.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- During submission confirm your affiliation with Newcastle University. Verification of this will be easier if you use your @newcastle.ac.uk email address
- Specify the relevant funder(s) for your article (see eligible funders above)
- Select the CC BY licence (as required by all funders of eligible articles)
BMJ will refer articles to us for approval and once we have done so your article will be published open access.
Information from the publisher: BMJ open access agreements for the United Kingdom
Information from the publisher: Resources and benefits: Article Publication
Corresponding authors can publish open access at no extra cost in fully open access and subscription journals through the Cambridge University Press (CUP) Read & Publish Agreement. This agreement covers research articles and review articles accepted for publication between 01 Jan 2021 and 31 Dec 2024 in eligible Cambridge University Press journals.
Type of journal: subscription and fully open access.
Type of publication: original research articles, reviews, rapid communications, brief reports and case reports.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Confirm that the journal publishing your paper is included in the agreement
- Use the CUP tool to find out which journals are eligible (enter United Kingdom/Newcastle University and click: 'View your publisher agreement', then scroll down).
- When submitting your paper select your affiliation, ideally using your institutional email address and ORCiD iD.
- On acceptance complete the author publishing agreement to request open access (select 'Gold Open Access') and select a Creative Commons licence.
- CUP will refer your paper to us and you will be notified when we have approved it for open access publication.
Information from the publisher: CUP Read and Publish agreement
Our transformative agreement with The Company of Biologists allows corresponding authors to publish research articles open access without paying an article processing charge in their subscription journals (Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology) and fully open access journals (Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open).
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Detailed instructions are provided by the publisher at:
https://www.biologists.com/library-hub/read-publish/guide-for-authors/
The Elsevier-UK Institutions Agreement provides unlimited open access publishing for corresponding authors affiliated with Newcastle University when publishing in Elsevier subscription journals, including Cell Press and Lancet titles. For most fully open access titles authors will receive a discount.
Type of journal: For subscription journals the full APC will be covered. For most fully open access journals the agreement provides a 15% discount, but the remainder will need to be paid. Please ensure you have funds available for this.
Type of publication: Research articles and reviews.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Confirm that the journal publishing your paper is included in the agreement (see participating journals for subscription titles and contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk for fully open access titles)
- When submitting your paper select your affiliation and ideally use your institutional email address and ORCID iD.
- On acceptance eligible corresponding authors will receive an email containing a link to the 'post-acceptance author journey'.
- When completing the 'Rights and Access information form' for the publishing options, select Newcastle University from the 'Organization name' and add any funder details. This should show that an institutional discount will cover the APC. Please complete this form within 3-5 business days.
- We will receive a request to validate your eligibility and you will be informed if the APC will be covered by the agreement.
Information from the publisher: Elsevier-UK Institutions Agreement
Our transformative greement with the Geological Society of London allows corresponding authors affiliated with Newcastle University to publish articles open access at no additional charge in all of the journals in the Lyell Collection.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- The publisher uses the affiliation of the corresponding author of the article to determine eligibility for the agreement. Authors should therefore use their institutional email address (newcastle.ac.uk) and select Newcastle University as the institution name on their user profile in Editorial Manager.
- Authors should also use Newcastle University as the qualifying institution name when providing their details during submission.
The IOP Publishing (IOPP) read and publish agreement allows corresponding authors affiliated with Newcastle University to publish research articles and reviews (letters, papers, reviews and special issue articles) as open access in IOPP subscription and open access journals at no cost.
Type of journals covered: Subscription journals and fully open access journals. For specific journal titles please refer to IOPP's list of eligible journals - titles in List A, B and D are covered by our agreement.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- On submission, state your Newcastle University affiliation in the article submission form and in the article itself.
- You will be notified that IOPP has identified your article as eligible for open access during peer-review or shortly after acceptance.
- IOPP will ask you to agree to the CC BY licence so your article can be published open access.
- Your paper will be published open access at no cost to you and you can share it as you wish.
Information from the publisher: IOPP guide to submitting under a Transformative Agreement
The IWA Publishing agreement allows all corresponding authors from Newcastle University to publish open access in the Society’s 10 subscription and 5 open access journals at no cost.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Eligible authors wishing to take advantage of this agreement in IWA Publishing journals have only to submit their manuscript using their university e-mail address and including their institutional affiliation.
- Further details on how to ensure your publication is made open access for free are available on the IWA Institutional Waivers site.
The Microbiology Society Publish and Read agreement allows any article published in society journals, where the corresponding author is from Newcastle University, to be made open access at no additional cost.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Corresponding authors will be identified from their email address used in the submission process. Therefore please ensure you provide correct affiliation information and use your university email address for submisison.
- Where a corresponding author’s email domain matches that provided for a Publish and Read institution, the author will be asked to select a CC BY licence and the article will be published open access without further charge.
- Corresponding authors can also check their fee-free eligibility and then indicate the Publish and Read route for open access during submission.
The transformative agreement with Oxford University Press (OUP) provides our corresponding authors with open access publishing for no additional cost for research and review articles in participating journals. You will need to arrange payment separately for any other charges that apply to your article, such as page or colour charges.
Restrictions: This agreement is subject to an annual cap on the number of articles that can be approved. Honorary or visiting members of staff are therefore only eligible to use this agreement where the paper acknowledges funding from UKRI, Wellcome Trust, Blood Cancer UK, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Parkinson's UK or Versus Arthritis.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Confirm that your journal is included in the agreement (please contact us to discuss this).
- On submission use your Newcastle University affiliation and email address to allow OUP to identify your paper as eligible for the agreement.
- On acceptance OUP will contact you with details of how to make your article open access as described below.
- Login to OUP Author Services
- Select an open access licence (your funder may require CC BY). Note, you will need to confirm that you will pay the Open Access charge – tick the box and proceed to ask Newcastle University to pay
- Accept the copyright agreement
- On the Article Charges page, from the list of institutions select 'UK Institutions (Jisc affiliated)'
- Tick ‘Refer Charge?’ next to the open access charge
- Click 'Refer Charges' at the bottom of the page
The open access team will be notified of your request and eligible publications will be approved.
Our PLOS institutional account can be used to pay the article processing charges (APCs) for eligible articles in PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation journals only. You will need to arrange payment separately for any other PLOS titles.
Type of journal: PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Upon submission, use your university e-mail address and institutional affiliation.
- PLOS will verify your eligibility.
- If you receive an invoice, contact the open access team.
Our transformative agreement with PNAS allows corresponding authors affiliated with Newcastle University to publish research articles (including brief reports) open access without incurring page charges or open access charges. A CC BY license is applied to the article by default and articles are deposited in PubMed Central (PMC) and to Europe PMC.
Restrictions
The article must be accepted for publication in PNAS between February 15, 2022 (when the agreement was signed) and December 31, 2023.
The agreement is subject to an annual cap on the number of articles that can be approved. Honorary or visiting members of staff are therefore only eligible to use this agreement where the paper acknowledges funding from UKRI, Wellcome Trust, Blood Cancer UK, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Parkinson's UK or Versus Arthritis.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Use your institutional (@newcastle.ac.uk) email address when submitting the paper.
- Authors will be asked to validate their institution if a validated institution is not already linked to your author profile.
- When signing the License to Publish the corresponding author should choose a CC BY license to qualify for this agreement.
- Corresponding authors of eligible articles will be notified that no payment is required. Corresponding authors of ineligible articles will be notified and need to arrange payment. Eligible authors who opt out of publishing with an open access license will be responsible for paying the full PNAS charges for their article.
Our transformative agreement with Portland Press provides unlimited open access publishing for our corresponding authors in all seven Portland Press journals.
Type of journals covered: five hybrid plus two full-OA journals.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Use your Newcastle University affiliation and @newcastle.ac.uk email address when you submit.
- During the submission process authors are asked to validate their affiliation by clicking on "Validate Institution". Select "Newcastle University" then Save.
- Once accepted, Portland Press will refer your paper to us and you will be notified when we have approved it for open access publication.
Information from the publisher: R and P with the Biochemical Society and Portland Press journals | Portland Press
Our transformative agreement with the Royal Society provides open access at no additional charge for corresponding authors in all of their journals.
Instructions for corresponding authors
Corresponding authors must use their @newcastle.ac.uk email address when submitting a paper for publication in order for it to be identified as eligible for the agreement.
- Visit the website of your chosen journal and click "Submit".
- Log-in to your Royal Society account.
- Upload your manuscript, related files and complete the required fields.
- Select "Read & Publish" from the list of options to refer the charges to our agreement.
Information from the publisher: Read & Publish for authors
Our transformative agreement with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) provides open access at no additional cost to our corresponding authors when publishing research articles in any of their subscription journals. Please note that the agreement does not cover submission fees, page charges or colour charges and these must be paid by the author directly.
Type of journal: RSC subscription journals only. For RSC open access journals the agreement provides a 15% discount, but the remaining charges will need to be paid. Please ensure you have sufficient funds available if required.
Type of publication: All peer reviewed article types (full papers, communications, and reviews). Editorials and Corrections are not covered.
Restrictions: This agreement is subject to an annual cap on the number of articles that can be approved. Honorary or visiting members of staff are therefore only eligible to use this agreement where the paper acknowledges funding from UKRI, Wellcome Trust, Blood Cancer UK, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Parkinson's UK or Versus Arthritis.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Double-check that you are listed as the corresponding author in both the RSC submission system and in your manuscript.
- Use your Newcastle University email address to submit your manuscript (this helps the RSC identify you as eligible).
- State your institute affiliation and email address in your manuscript and make sure this remains the same, even after submission.
- Do not sign the standard licence to publish; upon acceptance of your manuscript, you will be able to choose and sign the CC BY or CC BY-NC open access licence.
Information from the publisher: Read & Publish scheme
The university's agreement with Sage allows all corresponding authors to publish gold open access in most Sage, IMechE and Royal Society of Medicine subscription journals. The agreement covers original research articles, reviews, brief communications, short reports and case reports.
Type of journal: Subscription journals only. Fully open access journals participating in the agreement offer a 20% discount, but the remainder will need to be paid. Please ensure you have funds available for this.
Type of publication: original research articles, reviews, brief communications, short reports and case reports.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- When you submit your paper ensure you are listed as corresponding author and use your Newcastle University affiliation and e-mail address. This will enable Sage to identify your paper as eligible.
- On acceptance the open access team will be asked to approve your eligibility to publish open access through the agreement.
- Once approved Sage will email you ask you to "Select your publishing route".
- Check the pricing details. Subscription/hybrid articles are free, fully open access articles will show the discount.
- Choose the open access option "Yes, make my article open access".
- If you have declared a funder that requires a specific licence (e.g. CC BY) you should only be offered that licence.
Our Read and Publish Pilot agreement with the Society of Neuroscience provides unlimited open access publishing for primary corresponding authors in the Journal of Neuroscience.
For the avoidance of doubt, the publishing fee covers all publication charges. There are no author facing fees for eligible articles under this agreement.
Type of publication: All research articles under CC-BY licence terms.
Restrictions: This agreement covers articles accepted for publication between 0 and
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Use your Newcastle University affiliation and @newcastle.ac.uk email address when you submit. This allows the publisher to identify your paper as being eligible for the agreement.
- You will be asked to validate your institution.
Springer (subscription)
The Springer open access agreement for the UK allows corresponding authors from Newcastle University to publish open access in eligible Springer subscription journals at no extra cost. See the list of journals included in the 'Publishing open access in a Springer portfolio journal' section.
Type of publication: The agreement covers original research papers, reviews papers, brief communications and continuing education papers.
Nature (subscription)
The Nature open access agreement for the UK allows corresponding authors from Newcastle University to publish open access in eligible Nature subscription journals at no extra cost. See the list of journals included in the 'Publishing open access in a Nature Portfolio journal' section.
Type of publication: The agreement covers research articles, which may also be referred to as: original paper, analysis, article, letter, brief communication, registered report, resource, technical report.
Restrictions: The agreement is subject to an annual cap on the number of articles that can be approved. Honorary or visiting members of staff are therefore only eligible to use this agreement where the paper acknowledges funding from UKRI, Wellcome Trust, Blood Cancer UK, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Parkinson's UK or Versus Arthritis.
If an honorary or visiting member of staff, or if the article cap is reached, authors can publish as subscription and provide open access via the green route. Authors should include a rights retention statement (RRS) in their acknowledgements and will be asked to sign an alternative licence. See the Research Publications & Copyright Policy for details of the RRS.
Fully open access journals
For fully open access journals across the Springer Nature portfolio (BMC, SpringerOpen, Palgrave and Nature Portfolios), Newcastle University corresponding authors are eligible for a 15% discount on the article processing charge (APC). The remainder of the APC will need to be paid, please ensure you have funds available for this.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- On submission, use your Newcastle University affiliation and e-mail address to help verify your eligibility.
- Note, if there is more than one corresponding author, ensure that the first is affiliated with Newcastle University to be eligible for this agreement.
- When your paper is accepted, Springer will send you a link to the publishing agreement.
- For subscription titles, this will indicate that your article can be made open access at no cost.
- For fully OA journals, you will be prompted to confirm your affiliation.
- The institutional discount will be automatically applied to the APC, provided you are publishing in an eligible article type, in an eligible journal.
- Update the billing details with the appropriate information.
- Agree to the open access terms, including the CC BY licence.
- Once verified, your paper will become open access on publication.
Additional information: Upon request eligible authors may have their colour charges waived.
Our open access agreement with Taylor and Francis (T&F) allows corresponding authors to publish eligible articles as open access at no additional cost in their subscription journals.
Type of journal: Taylor and Francis subscription journals offering Open Select. Fully open access journals are not included.
Type of publication: Original research article or review (or other original research article type). Other types of paper, such as Editorials, Announcements, and Book Reviews, are not covered by this agreement.
Restrictions: The agreement is subject to an annual cap on the number of articles that can be approved. Honorary or visiting members of staff are therefore only eligible to use this agreement where the paper acknowledges funding from UKRI, Wellcome Trust, Blood Cancer UK, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Parkinson's UK or Versus Arthritis.
Please be aware that if the article limit is reached then open access publishing through the agreement will be paused until the beginning of the following year.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Use your Newcastle University affiliation and @newcastle.ac.uk email address when you submit your paper so that it is identified as eligible for the agreement.
- After acceptance T&F will notify you that your paper may be eligible for the agreement and will ask the open access team to confirm this.
- When we approve your article for open access they will contact you again to confirm this and ask you to choose a license for your article. We recommend you select CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution) to maximise the visibility and impact of your research. If your research was funded by UKRI or Wellcome Trust CC BY is required and T&F will direct you to sign this licence.
Our read and publish agreement with Thieme provides corresponding authors with open access at no cost for a limited number of articles in the following Chemistry collection journals
- Drug Research
- Planta Medica
- Synfacts
- Synlett
- Synthesis
To request open access through this agreement please complete the Thieme application form and submit this to your chosen journal along with your manuscript.
Once the article limit has been reached authors will receive a 25% discount on the APC, but will need to fund the remainder of the charges.
The current agreement is due to end on December 31, 2023.
The Wiley Open access agreement for Jisc institutions allows full staff or students affiliated with Newcastle University who act as the 'responsible corresponding author' to publish articles as open access at no additional cost. It covers primary research and review articles in most of Wiley's subscription and fully open access journals. Please note that other article types e.g. letters, editorials etc. are excluded.
Type of journal: Subscription and fully open access journals.
Type of publication: Primary research and review articles. Please note that other article types e.g. letters, editorials etc. are excluded.
Restrictions: This agreement is subject to an annual cap on the number of articles that can be approved. Honorary or visiting members of staff are therefore only eligible to use this agreement where the paper acknowledges funding from UKRI, Wellcome Trust, Blood Cancer UK, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Parkinson's UK or Versus Arthritis.
The open access team will approve all requests received subject to confirmation of eligibility and sufficient funds remaining in the combined national contribution that supports the agreement.
Additional charges: From April 2023, Wiley have eliminated print and colour charges from all fully gold and any new gold open access journals, including those journals transitioning from a hybrid model, when an APC is being paid. This waiver is applied when the article is accepted for publication. A number of hybrid/subscription journals still carry these charges. Authors should check the author guidelines for individual journals to familiarize themselves with the page and colour charges policy before submitting a manuscript.
Instructions for corresponding authors
Wiley define the responsible corresponding author as the author who manages the manuscript and correspondence during the publication process - from submission through publication. This author has the authority to act on behalf of all the co-authors and will also be the contact for inquiries after publication.
A. Publishing in a subscription journal
- After acceptance log in to Wiley Author Services to "Select Open Access"
- Choose Newcastle University as your affiliation. Using your university e-mail address will help us verify your eligibility.
- If prompted provide details of relevant funding. This ensures you are directed to select the required licence where a choice is available
- Confirm "Yes, make my article open access".
- We will be notified of your request and once approved you will receive a confirmation email.
B. Publishing in a fully open access journal
- Select Newcastle University as your institution when you submit.
- During submission, select "The Corresponding Author's institution/funder has an agreement with Wiley" and follow instructions to enter their account code.
- We will be notified of your request and once approved you will receive a confirmation email.
Information from the publisher: Wiley Open access agreement for Jisc institutions
Authors are prompted in the last step of submission to determine if they are eligible for discounts under the open access program. The discount will be applied automatically where authors use their Newcastle University email address.
Institutional Accounts (UKRI only)
For papers within the scope of the UKRI open access policy, the open access fees can be paid directly from university accounts. Please follow the instructions for the publisher of your chosen journal.
Our Frontiers account can be used to pay the article processing charges (APCs) for eligible articles that acknowledge UKRI funding. This reduces the administration required for authors and grants a discount on publisher charges.
Instructions for corresponding authors
- Apply for UKRI open access funding and await confirmation that your paper has been approved
- When submitting your article select ‘Newcastle University’ as the payer in the invoice section
- Frontiers will refer the article to the university to verify your eligibility
- For pre-approved papers the APC will be paid from the university account on acceptance
Please note that only articles acknowledging UKRI-funding and in scope of their open access poilicy are eligible to use this account.
Institutional memberships
We participate in a range of initiatives in support open access publishing, including Open Book Publishers, Open Library of Humanities, Knowledge Unlatched and Ubiquity Press.