Make your research publications Open Access

How to publish Open Access papers

You can publish your paper as Open Access by:

  • Self-archiving - deposit the accepted manuscript in Pure or other repository and/or
  • Publish the paper in an Open Access or subscription journal which allows Open Access.

The University holds funding to publish papers that acknowledge UKRI or the British Heart Foundation in Open Access journals.

All Heriot-Watt corresponding authors can take advantage of the Read and Publish deals listed below to make their research articles open access.

Co-authors should seek to make their papers Open Access by self-archiving the accepted manuscript in Pure.

Read and Publish/Transformative agreements
The University has  agreements with the publishers listed below which enables all Heriot-Watt University affiliated corresponding authors to publish Open Access in selected journals.

 

  1. Please check that the journal in which you wish to publish is included in the list of eligible journals on the Publisher's website before signing a publishing agreement. You should never have to generate an invoice when publishing under a Read and Publish agreement. There are no university funds to pay for Article Processing charges in hybrid (subscription) journals.
     
  2. Check that the kind of article you wish to publish is included in the agreement. For example, data papers, book reviews or conference reports are normally not eligible.

Contact open.access@hw.ac.uk if you would like to check a specific journal.

  1. When publishing Open Access, please select the CC BY license. If you wish to select a different licence, contact open.access@hw.ac.uk to check this meets University or funder policies.
     
  2. Use your Heriot-Watt University email address and include Heriot-Watt University as your main affiliation when submitting your paper and include all funders in your acknowledgements.

Research data supporting publications should be recorded in Pure and archived in compliance with your funder and University policies. See our support pages for more information.

Read and Publish/Transformative Agreements

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

All corresponding authors from Heriot-Watt University will have their research articles and conference proceedings published Open Access in ACM journals, conference proceedings and magazines, at no cost to the authors. This deal is in place until 31st December 2025.

For details of the agreement see ACM Open

American Chemical Society

Heriot-Watt University corresponding authors can publish Open Access in all ACS journals - fully Open Access journals and hybrid journals. Please select a CC BY licence and make sure you mention Heriot-Watt and your funder in your acknowledgements.

1st Jan 2022 - 31st Dec 2024 ; Unlimited publishing.

Articles with an acceptance date of 1 January 2022 or later that have been published behind the paywall will be made retrospectively OA through a CC license.

For more information, see the ACS How to Publish Open Access Under a Read + Publish Agreement

American Institute of Physics

Heriot-Watt University corresponding authors can publish Open Access in hybrid journals with no additional APC charges. Please select the CC BY licence.

Gold Open Access journals are not included in the agreement. If you are UKRI funded, you can apply for funding from the University to pay for the APC. Make sure you mention Heriot-Watt University and your funder in the acknowledgements.

Cambridge University Press

Corresponding authors with a Heriot-Watt University affiliation can publish their research in gold and hybrid journals at no upfront cost.

For details of the agreement, and the journals, see: Read and Publish agreement with JISc Collections, UK

Elsevier

The University has a four year agreement with Elsevier which runs from 1st January 2022 to 31st December 2024.

Corresponding authors affiliated with Heriot-Watt University can publish Open Access in hybrid (subscription) journals at no cost to the author. Please select the CC BY licence.

There is a list of participating journals and instructions for authors on the Elsevier website.

Gold Open Access journals are not covered by this agreement. If you are UKRI funded, you can apply for funding from the University to pay for the APC in Elsevier Open Access journals. A 15% discount on fees applies.
 

Institute of Physics

Heriot-Watt University corresponding authors can publish in eligible hybrid journals.

Research articles and reviews (letters, papers, reviews and special issue articles) accepted for publication after 1st January 2020 are eligible, IOP will automatically identify qualifying articles and inform authors of their inclusion.

Included in the agreement are all subscription journals, owned by IOP Publishing, which offer a hybrid Open Access option. In addition, the agreement also includes selected journals which are published by IOP Publishing on behalf of their society partners.

See: IOP Open Access for the UK for more information on the process.

Optica (Optical Society of America)

This agreement covers all Heriot-Watt University corresponding authors, who can publish Open Access at no upfront cost in the following journals: Advances in Optics and Photonics, Applied Optics, Biomedical Optics Express, Journal of the Optical Society of America A, Journal of the Optical Society of America B, Optica, Optical Materials Express, Optics Continuum, Optics Express, and Optics Letters.

Corresponding authors must have a current affiliation to Heriot-Watt University. To take advantage of this agreement, please use your Heriot-Watt University email address when submitting the paper. Please also select the CC BY licence.

For more information from the publisher: Optica Institutional Open Access Agreements

Oxford University Press

Heriot-Watt University corresponding authors can publish Open Access in hybrid and fully Open Access journals free of charge.

APCs for participating hybrid and Gold Open Access journals are paid in full for all corresponding authors at participating Scottish institutions. Applies to original research and review articles accepted for publication, backdated to 1st January 2021.

For more information see SHEDL agreement

PLoSOne

Heriot-Watt University corresponding authors can publish Open Access free of charge in PLOS Climate, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Digital Health, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Global Public Health, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS ONE, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, and PLOS Water.

See: PLOS Institutional Partnerships for more information.

Royal Society for Chemistry

Heriot-Watt University corresponding authors can publish Open Access in their hybrid journals free of charge. See Royal Society of Chemistry for more information.

SAGE

Heriot-Watt University corresponding authors can publish Open Access in 900+ hybrid journals in the current Sage Premier package, as well as in the IMechE Journal Collection and the Royal Society of Medicine Collection, free of charge.

Corresponding authors publishing articles in Gold Open Access journals are entitled to a 20% discount. Please select SHEDL when selecting your SAGE consortium agreement

Springer Nature

Heriot-Watt University corresponding authors can elect to make their papers Open Access in Springer/Palgrave hybrid journals and Nature hybrid academic journals. Springer Nature are paid an annual fee to cover costs as part of the Read and Publish agreement. We encourage you strongly to take up this offer. Please select the CC BY licence.

Open access agreement for the UK: Information for authors

If you wish to publish in a fully Open Access journal, eg Nature Communications, you will be required to pay a fee to the publisher, with a discount applicable. UKRI-funded authors can apply to the UKRI Open Access Block Grant for funding to pay the Open Access fee in fully OA journals.

Taylor & Francis

Heriot-Watt University corresponding authors can publish Open Access in Taylor&Francis and Routledge Open Select (hybrid) journals at no cost to themselves. See Taylor & Francis for more information.

Wiley

Corresponding authors affiliated with Heriot-Watt University may publish primary research and review articles in any of Wiley’s and Hindawi's fully gold Open Access journals or Wiley’s hybrid (subscription based) journals at no further charge to the author. More information from Wiley

What funds are available to cover Article Processing Charges (APCs)?

Authors can no longer request publication costs in their UKRI grant although they can use existing funds from current grants.

Instead, UKRI have allocated funds to research institutions in the form of a block grant. Funding for Open Access fees (APCs) are available to corresponding authors.

Please contact open.access@hw.ac.uk before you submit to the journal to check if there is funding available. In some cases we will ask that you consider the Green Open Access route. Please complete and send this form to open.access@hw.ac.uk

Funders' Open Access Policies

The new UKRI Open Access Policy applies to journal articles submitted from 1st April 2022

UKRI and British Heart Foundation funded papers
If you wish to publish in a journal not included in the deals above you can apply for funding to cover the article processing charge (APC) if your paper acknowledges UKRI or BHF funding. Please note that from April 2022, UKRI Funds are only available for papers published in Gold Open Access (listed in the DOAJ) or transformative journals. Please see the new UKRI Open Access Policy for more information.

For non-UKRI funded papers, please check your funder's requirements for publishing Open Access, and if you are able to claim Open Access costs, for either Gold or Hybrid article processing charges, please do this. If the paper is published in a journal that is part of a Transformative agreement please inform open.access@hw.ac.uk.

Memberships and other institutional agreements

Frontiers

Papers acknowledging UKRI funding are eligible for a 10% discount. To submit your article under this agreement, please select ‘Heriot-Watt University’ as the payer in the invoice section when submitting your article. Frontiers will then verify your eligibility with Heriot-Watt University and, if confirmed, the APC will be paid by the University upon acceptance.

Institutional agreement

MDPI

Under MDPI's Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP), UKRI or BHF authors can choose to have the invoice dealt with centrally. Make sure you add your funder on submission. 10% discount for all authors.

IEEE

There is no Read and Publish agreement with IEEE. However, all Heriot-Watt University authors can deposit their AAM in Pure with no embargo period and a CC BY licence.

Key information

Open Access