Open Access Publishing | Open Access Resources
Open Access Publishing
The University Libraries, and consortial partners negotiate directly with publishers to enable open access publishing agreements that benefit researchers at our campus and promote open scholarly communication globally (more about our licensing priorities). Please contact Scholarly Communication Librarian Melissa Cantrell (melissa.cantrell@colorado.edu) with any questions about these agreements. We also directly support publication of open monographs (CU Boulder Open Monograph Fund) and open articles (Open Access Fund).
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and University of Colorado Agreement
The University of Colorado System has an agreement with ACM to support Open Access publishing. If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access - at no cost to you - in any ACM Digital Library publication venue. Open Access (OA) means that anyone in the world can find, read, and share your research.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under CU’s agreement with ACM. The article must be:
- Original research to be published in the ACM Digital Library
- This includes ACM's entire publication portfolio of journals, magazines, conference proceedings, newsletters, websites, and multimedia files, whose contents are listed at The ACM Full-Text Collection.
- ACM books are excluded from the agreement
- Have a corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
- To benefit from this agreement, it is very important that you use your CU Boulder institutional email when submitting your work to ACM.
- Accepted for publication between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2025
Process
If your publication is eligible based on the criteria above, you will be directed to fill out an eRights form for ACM, which will have three steps:
- Rights granted to ACM: You will have three options for rights you want to grant to ACM. The first two options will allow you to retain copyright over the published work, while the third option - a transfer of copyright - will not
- Select a license: Select a Creative Commons license and permissions preferences, or select one of th alternate licenses provided
- Permission to publish: complete eRights by providing ACM permission to publish your work Open Access
Cambridge University Press and Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries Agreement
The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries has an agreement with Cambridge University Press to support Open Access (OA) publishing. If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access - at no cost to you - in gold and hybrid journals at Cambridge University Press. Open Access means that anyone in the world can find, read, and share your research.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under the Alliance’s agreement with Cambridge University Press. The article must be:
- Original research
- Eligible article types: research articles, review articles, rapid communications, brief reports and case reports
- Have a corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
- Accepted for publication in a Cambridge University Press journal covered by the agreement - list of eligible journals (.xlsx file)
- Accepted for publication between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2026
Process
If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, you will have the option to complete and submit the journal’s OA author publishing agreement and select the creative commons licence which will determine how readers can use your article. The CU Boulder Libraries will confirm your eligibility and pay the Article Processing Charge (APC) to make your article Open Access. Upon publication, your article will be free for everyone to find, read, and share - congratulations!
More information
For more information on this agreement to support Open Access publishing, visit the Read and Publish agreement with the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries on the Cambridge University Press website.
Frontiers and University of Colorado Boulder Membership
Frontiers funding via CU Boulder's institutional membership is currently exhausted. Please check back here for verification of renewed funding in 2024.
The University of Colorado Boulder has a membership with Frontiers to support Open Access publishing. If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access - at no cost to you - in all Frontiers journals. Open Access (OA) means that anyone in the world can find, read, and share your research.
Eligibility
The article must have a corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder. To benefit from this agreement, corresponding authors should use their institutional email and list CU Boulder as their affiliated institution when submitting an article.
Payment of publication charges by CU Boulder Libraries is pending the availability of funds. Because institutional funding under this membership is limited, the Libraries cannot guarantee funding and publications will be approved on a case by case basis.CU Boulder authors with accepted articles will need to verify a need to utilize the CU Boulder institutional membership in order to receive funding.
Process
If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, please select “University of Colorado Boulder” as the institutional payer in the invoice section when submitting your article. The University of Colorado Boulder Libraries’ will then confirm your eligibility after the article is accepted, and if confirmed, the publication charge will be paid by the Libraries.
Upon publication, your article will be free for everyone to find, read, and share - congratulations!
More information
For more information on this membership to support Open Access publishing, contact Scholarly Communication Librarian Melissa Cantrell at melissa.cantrell@colorado.edu.
PeerJ and University of Colorado Boulder Membership
The University of Colorado Boulder has a membership with PeerJ to support Open Access publishing. If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access - at no cost to you - in all PeerJ journals. Open Access (OA) means that anyone in the world can find, read, and share your research.
Eligibility
The article must have a corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder. To benefit from this agreement, corresponding authors should use their institutional email and list CU Boulder as their affiliated institution when submitting an article.
Payment of publication charges by CU Boulder Libraries is pending the availability of funds. Because institutional funding under this membership is limited, the Libraries cannot guarantee funding and publications will be approved on a case by case basis.
Process
If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, PeerJ initiates an automated process to confirm your institutional affiliation and generate payment of your article processing charge from our membership agreement.
Upon publication, your article will be free for everyone to find, read, and share - congratulations!
More information
For more information on this membership to support Open Access publishing, contact Scholarly Communication Librarian Melissa Cantrell at melissa.cantrell@colorado.edu.
PLOS and University of Colorado Boulder Agreement
As part of an agreement between PLOS and the Center for Research Libraries, CU Boulder corresponding authors are eliglible for unlimited publishing in all 12 PLOS titles with no Article Processing Charges (APCs).
Eligibility
All CU Boulder corresponding authors publishing in any PLOS journal are eligible for this agreement. In some cases, contributing authors (not the corresponding author) from CU Boulder are also eligible for a 25% discount on APCs for the following PLOS journals: PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation. To take advantage of this agreement, make sure to use your "colorado.edu" email address and select "University of Colorado Boulder" from the dropdown list as your institutional affiliation.
Process
When prompted under "Publication Fees" (for most PLOS journals), select "My institution will fully or partially pay the fee…" and select "University of Colorado Boulder" from the dropdown list. PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine, and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation will automatically identify eligible authors via email address and institutional affiliation provided. These three journals also apply an automatic 25% discount on APCs when CU Boulder authors are contributing authors (not the corresponding author). If the corresponding author is from another PLOS partner institution, the APC will be covered by their institution.
More Information
For more information on this membership to support Open Access publishing, contact Scholarly Communication Librarian Melissa Cantrell at melissa.cantrell@colorado.edu.
SAGE Publishing and Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries Agreement
The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries has an agreement with SAGE to support Open Access publishing. If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder, you can publish your article Open Access - with a 10% discount on article processing charges (APCs) - in gold (or fully) open access journals at SAGE. Open Access (OA) means that anyone in the world can find, read, and share your research.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under the Alliance’s agreement with SAGE Publishing. The article must:
-
Have a corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
-
Have been accepted to one of 181 gold, “fully” Open Access SAGE journal titles
-
Have been accepted for publication after January 2021
Process
If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, the 10% discount will be automatically applied and authors will be contacted to pay the APC once their paper enters production (Note: If another greater discount has been earned, only the largest discount applicable will be applied).
The Royal Society and University of Colorado Boulder Agreement
The University of Colorado Boulder has an agreement with the Royal Society to support Open Access publishing. If you are a corresponding author at CU Boulder you can publish your article Open Access - at no cost to you - in Royal Society journals covered under the agreement. Open Access (OA) means that anyone in the world can find, read, and share your research.
Eligibility
As long as your article meets the following criteria, you are eligible to publish Open Access under CU's agreement with the Royal Society. The article must:
- Be submitted for publication in one of the following journals:
- Biology Letters
- Interface Focus
- Journal of the Royal Society Interface
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
- Proceedings of the Royal Society A
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B
- Open Biology
- Royal Society Open Science
- Have a corresponding author affiliated with CU Boulder
- To benefit from this agreement, corresponding authors should use their institutional email and list CU Boulder as their affiliated institution when submitting an article
- Be accepted for publication between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021
Process
If your article is eligible based on the criteria above, complete the following:
- Once the article is accepted, opt to publish it Open Access
- Select the "Read and Publish model" option from the list. This selection will enable the Royal Society to recognize you and the relevant discount will be applied
Upon publication, your article will be free to find, read, and share. Congratulations!
Open Access Resources
We support or contribute to the following open access resources:
- ArXiv – Subject repository for Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics, sponsored by Cornell University
- DOAJ - The Directory of Open Access Journals, an independent database containing over 15,000 peer-reviewed open access journals
- Independent Voices (CRL/Reveal Digital) – Open Access collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines, and journals
- Knowledge Unlatched – Free scholarly content (including books and journals) in all subject areas
- MDPI – Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, an open access academic publisher
- PeerJ – Peer-reviewed & Open Access journal publishing primary research and reviews in biology, life sciences, environmental sciences, and medicine.
- SCOAP3 – Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics
- SPARC – A global coalition promoting open access, open education, and open data
Please let us know if there are other open access resources the Libraries should support.