Make your research publications Open Access

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.
 

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

• Springer portfolio journals included in the agreement
• Nature portfolio journals included in the agreement

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.

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.

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

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

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

First check that the journal your are submitting to is compliant with UKRI Policy. Check using the Sherpa FACT database or contact Research Support in the Library.

If the journal offers Gold Open Access publishing then your paper will, when published, be made openly available immediately. The publisher may ask you to pay an Open Access fee (APC). 

It is worthwhile checking that the journal does not also offer the Green (self-archiving) route. No APC is payable in this instance, and the paper is made available openly via deposition in Pure after an embargo period, and published as "normal" in the journal.

Please also upload a copy of the paper to the research output record in Pure, if your publisher allows. Normally you can upload the Author Final Version.

First check that the journal you are submitting to is compliant with UKRI Policy. Check using the Sherpa FACT database or contact Research Support in the Library.

Green publishing means that you can publish in a subscription journal and make a copy of the work available in an Open Access repository - eg Pure or a subject repository such as arXiv or PubMedCentral.  Some publishers still allow this kind of Open Access publishing. IEEE is one such publisher.

No APC is payable in this instance, and the paper is made available openly via deposition in Pure after an embargo period, and published as "normal" in the journal.

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

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.

The University has a prepayment scheme with IEEE for Gold Open Access journals funded by UKRI and BHF.  Please make sure you include your funder on submission to the journal.