An Article Processing Charges (APC) is a fee paid to the publisher to make an article free at point of access. While open Access principles promote free availability of research and scholarly output, research papers are not cost free to produce. The cost of publication is moved from the reader (via subscriptions and pay-walls) to the author (via the APC).
Note: if your funding body is paying the APC, they normally require the article to have a CC-BY (Creative Commons Attribution) license.
Adapted from Open Access Oxford Glossary – including the definitions of APCs and other main OA terminology from the Oxford Open Access Project.
The table below presents a summary of the publishers that offer APC discount to the HKU authors.
Publishers (In alphabetical order) |
Journal Titles Covered | APC Discount to HKU authors |
Bentham Science Publishers | Journal List | 50% off |
BioMed Central | Journal List | 15% off |
Cambridge University Press | Journal List |
Full APC waiver (until 31 December 2026) |
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press | Journal List |
Full APC waiver (until 31 December 2024) |
Company of Biologists | Journal List |
Full APC waiver (until 31 December 2025) |
IOP Publishing | Journal List |
Full APC waiver (until 31 December 2025) |
Karger | Journal List |
Full APC waiver (until 31 December 2026) |
Microbiology Society | Journal List |
Full APC waiver (until 31 December 2025) |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) | Journal List | 10% off |
Policy Press | Journal List | 20% off |
Portland Press | Journal List |
Full APC waiver (until 31 December 2024) |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) |
Discounted price at $4,975 for immediate open access (Regular fee: $5,475) | |
SCOAP3 | Journal List | Full APC waiver |
Springer Nature - Springer Hybrid Journals | Journal List |
Full APC waiver (until 31 December 2026) |
SpringerOpen | Journal List | 15% off |
Wiley |
Full APC waiver (until 31 December 2025) |
|
The HKU Libraries has signed a Read & Publish Agreement with the Cambridge University Press (CUP) offering corresponding authors affiliated with HKU full Article Processing Charge (APC) waiver for Gold OA publishing in its full OA and hybrid journals, effective from 1st January 2022.
For agreement details, please refer to the Transformative Agreement page.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
The HKU Libraries has signed a transformative agreement with the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, offering HKU corresponding authors full Article Processing Charge (APC) waiver for OA publishing in five journals.
For agreement details, please refer to the Transformative Agreement page.
The HKU Libraries has signed a transformative agreement with The Company of Biologists, offering HKU corresponding authors full Article Processing Charge (APC) waiver for OA publishing in five journals.
For agreement details, please refer to the Transformative Agreement page.
Effective from 1 January 2023, HKU corresponding authors can enjoy full Article Processing Charge (APC) waiver for open access publishing in eligible journals published by IOP under transformative agreement.
For agreement details, please refer to the Transformative Agreement page.
The HKU Libraries has signed an Open Access Agreement with the Karger Publisher. HKU authors can enjoy an unlimited free Article Processing Charge (APC) credit to all its Open Access Journals and Hybrid Journals with an OA option.
For agreement details, please refer to the Transformative Agreement page.
Effective from 1 January 2023, HKU corresponding authors can enjoy full Article Processing Charge (APC) waiver for open access publishing in the six eligible journals published by Microbiology Society under Read and Publish agreement.
For agreement details, please refer to the Transformative Agreement page.
Effective from 1 January 2023, HKU corresponding authors can enjoy full Article Processing Charge (APC) waiver for open access publishing in the seven eligible journals published by Portland Press under transformative agreement.
For agreement details, please refer to the Transformative Agreement page.
As HKU Libraries is one of the member libraries of JULAC (Joint University Librarians Advisory Committee), which is a partner of SCOAP3 - Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics, HKU authors can publish in SCOAP3 journals at no cost.
Springer Nature - Springer Hybrid Journals
Effective from 1 January 2024, HKU corresponding authors can enjoy full Article Processing Charge (APC) waiver for Open Access publishing in eligible journals published by Springer Nature (Springer Hybrid Journals) under transformative agreement. Quotas are limited.
For agreement details, please refer to the Transformative Agreement page.
Effective from 1 January 2023, HKU corresponding authors can enjoy full Article Processing Charge (APC) waiver for Open Access publishing in eligible journals published by Wiley under transformative agreement. Quotas are limited.
For agreement details, please refer to the Transformative Agreement page.
HKU is a member of Bentham OPEN, which allows a 50% discount for HKU corresponding authors, and any HKU co-author. To receive this 50% discount, authors must include this code in cover letters, when submitting manuscripts: BOMI-HKU/01.
HKU has a Supporter Membership with BioMed Central. If the affiliation of the submitting author (author who uses the BMC online submission system) is HKU, then there will be a 15% discount. Therefore if you are one of the co-authors on a paper, please check with your other co-authors to determine which of their affiliations if any, have Supporter or Prepaid Memberships with BMC. Then the co-author of the affiliation with the most BMC discount could submit the article through BMC's online submission system. BMC writes,
When submitting a manuscript, either via a journal home page or via our online submission system, you will be identified as belonging to a member institution and automatically granted an article processing charge waiver if you are within your institution's firewall. If you are at home or at an external terminal when submitting your paper, you can still claim a waiver by starting your affiliation to your institution.
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
HKU Libraries is a member of the MDPI´s Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP). Under the IOAP scheme, HKU author can receive a 10% discount on the Article Processing Charges (APCs) for any papers published in an MDPI journal. Note that only one discount through an IOAP scheme is permitted per paper, and the discount cannot be combined with other available discounts, such as discount vouchers, and society membership discounts.
As a subscriber of Policy Press, HKU authors can enjoy a 20% APC discount on all Policy Press journals. Please quote the customer number (CU-0128046) when making enquiries about open access with Policy Press.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)
Because HKU Libraries have a paid subscription to this journal, the publishers will allow a discount on article processing charges (APC). After the discount, the APC is $4,975 for Immediate Open Access. However, there is no discount for Delayed Open Access. Please make sure the corresponding author lists “University of Hong Kong” as the affiliation. Then, the system of PNAS can match it to HKU subscriber record and add the discount. The corresponding author should receive an estimate of publication charges. You are also encouraged to check for the discount so that PNAS can make any corrections if needed.
Because of the HKU Supporter Membership of BioMed Central (above), HKU authors (submitting author) may also claim a 15% discount in SpringerOpen journals. Submission process is the same as in BMC above.
Directory of Open Access Journals
There are many more OA journals, many with no OA charges. The Directory of Open Access Journals lists 10,000+ journal titles, searchable by title, ISSN, and subject area.
Open Sage
The HKU Office of Knowledge Exchange has pre-paid article processing charges for 100 articles for HKU authors. The price to HKU authors wishing open access publishing in this journal is free. Submitting articles for this journal is done from this page.
On their submission page, in step 5, there is a box for “Pre-paid arrangements”. In this box, the author doing the submission must enter a special CODE. Inputting this CODE does not guarantee article acceptance.
Please note that although the main author, the corresponding author, or even the person doing the article submission does not have HKU affiliation, if one of the co-authors has HKU affiliation, then that co-author must inform the person doing the article submission with the CODE, in order to receive this benefit.
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
The HKU Office of Knowledge Exchange has paid for an institutional membership, HKU authors who are the corresponding authors, may publish in any Public Library of Science journal with a 10% discount. To receive this discount, you must claim, “The University of Hong Kong” from a pull down screen in the online submission process.