Article Processing Charges (APC) Discounts available through Robertson Library

Through the Robertson Library's participa tion in the Canadian Research Knowledge Network to purchase journal subscriptions, faculty, students, and staff are eligible for discounts on Article Processing Charges (APCs) associated with publishing open access journal articles! APCs are fees that an author pays to a journal to have their article published free to the world as open access. A journal may be fully open access or a "hybrid" journal, in which articles are behind a paywall unless authors pay an APC to make their article publically available. 

Why should I pay an APC to publish my article as open access?

According to a recent systematic review, the plurality (47.8%) of studies reviewed confirmed the existence of an open access citation advantage. The open access advantage is defined as the increased citation of articles made available open access.

Questions? Contact your subject librarian.

To learn specific details about APC discounts available to UPEI faculty, students, and staff, click the publisher listed below. The same information is also available at https://www.crkn-rcdr.ca/en/crkn-negotiated-apc-discounts.

  • American Chemical Society

    • $250.00 flat discount through the CRKN consortial journal package subscription.
    • Only applies to journals in which UPEI currently subscribes to in that package (which is most but not all ACS journals).
    • ACS calls this their "Author Choice" Open Access service
    • Authors must identify their institutional affiliation in order to qualify for the discount.

  • Cambridge University Press (CUP)

    As of January 1, 2022, corresponding authors affiliated with CRKN participating members will be able to publish an unlimited number of their articles as open access in Cambridge hybrid and gold journals at no charge for the duration of the agreement. The following five article types are included in this Open Access publishing portion of this agreement:

    • Research Articles
    • Review Articles
    • Rapid Communication
    • Brief Reports
    • Case Reports

    Cambridge uses an automated system, RightsLink, to associate authors with their affiliated institutions. Participating members can configure their institutional dashboards to automatically apply the APC waiver to authors. A step-by-step guide is available at https://www.crkn-rcdr.ca/sites/crkn/files/2022-01/Step-by-Step-Guide-to-Publishing-OA-2021-V2.pdf.

  • Elsevier ScienceDirect

  • Institute of Physics (IOP)

    As of December 15, 2021, corresponding authors affiliated with CRKN institutions participating in the CRKN-IOP Open Access agreement will be able to publish an unlimited number of their articles under an open access license in select IOP hybrid and gold journals at no charge for the duration of the agreement. The following article types are included in the Open Access publishing portion of this agreement (intended to cover all original research and review-type content):

    • Paper
    • Special Issue Paper
    • Review
    • Letter

    Please note that there are a select few journals for which IOP cannot offer an open access option that are excluded at this time.
    Authors submit articles to IOP using Scholar1, which includes an autofill field for corresponding authors to indicate their affiliation. Using Ringgold IDs, these affiliations will then be connected to CRKN participating institutions to capture all eligible articles under this agreement. 

  • MDPI

    • Institutional member
    • Receive 10% discount on APCs through this publisher.

  • Royal Society of Chemistry

    Timeframe: 2022-2024

    A 15% APC discount in RSC hybrid journals. The APC discount process is entirely automatic, following the steps outlined here:

    • Author submits article to a hybrid RSC journal following the standard process.
    • On acceptance of the manuscript, authors receive an email with a link to the licensing system.
    • The system automatically identifies the eligibility of the author based on the email domain (authors must use their institutional email in order to qualify for the discount).
    • Next, the author selects either the standard license (subscription article) or open access license.
      • If the author chooses open access, they are given the option of two creative commons licenses (CC-BY or CC-BY NC)

  • Sage Journals

    • Starting January 1, 2021, all authors affiliated with CRKN institutions that are participating in the CRKN-SAGE Premier Open Access agreement will be able to publish articles in SAGE Choice journals under an open access license with no associated Article Processing Charge (APC).
    • CRKN-affiliated authors may publish their articles as open access in over 900 SAGE Choice journals (journals excluded from SAGE Choice are listed here).
    • Authors may also use a 40% APC discount to publish in SAGE’s gold open access journals. See the title list of participating gold journals.
    • To facilitate open access publishing, processing of the APC waiver for SAGE Choice journals and the discount for gold open access journals is done automatically via the SAGE Open Access Portal (SOAP) when corresponding authors identify themselves as affiliated to a participating CRKN institution. 
    • More information about how to use SAGE Open Access Portal for gold open access journals.

  • Taylor & Francis Journals

    • 25% discount on APC fees for all Open Select Taylor & Francis journals
    • To take advantage of the discount, an author can submit an article and choose the open access publishing option. When the APC fee is generated, authors select their institution from the drop-down menu, and the discount will be automatically applied. The author can select a Creative Commons license to sign once they accept the quote. Visit Taylor & Francis' website for further details on the process.