Open Access fees, discounts, and support

Page last updated: 2025-02-21

The Library is a member of organizations that support Open Access and has agreements with select publishers that offer coverage of or discounts on Open Access fees (Article Processing Charges [APCs]) for Waterloo researchers.

OA Fee Coverage and Discounts - Agreement Details

If you have any questions about these agreements please reach out to copyright@uwaterloo.ca.

Fees fully covered

The Library participates in agreements with publishers that cover the cost of APCs for Waterloo researchers when they are the corresponding author (the first author). This means that publishing open access under the terms of the below agreements will have zero cost for Waterloo authors. In all cases, you must be the corresponding author and submit your article using University of Waterloo as your affiliation in order to be covered. It is helpful to submit using your University of Waterloo email address, but it is not required.

Publisher name and link to list of journals in search tool	Agreement length	Article types and journals covered	More information
Cambridge University Press	2025-01-01 - 2026-12-31	Research articles, review articles, rapid communications, brief reports, or case reports accepted in Cambridge Hybrid or Gold journals during the term of the agreement	Instructions for publishing OA through this deal are available on Cambridge's Publish your article Open Access under a Read and Publishing agreement page.
Canadian Science Publishing (CSP), formerly NRC Research Press	2023-01-01 - 2025-12-31	All articles in the following journals: Biochemistry and Cell Biology Canadian Journal of Physics Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology Genome Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering Note that for CSP's other hybrid journals a 25% APC discount applies, as noted below.
Company of Biologists	2024-01-01 - 2026-12-31	Articles accepted in both hybrid and gold OA journals during the term of the agreement.	- Read and Publish Agreement with the Ontario Consortium of University Libraries (OCUL) - Guide for corresponding authors at institutions with Read & Publish and other transformative Open Access agreements
Elsevier (Hybrid journals only)	2024-01-01 - 2026-12-31	Articles accepted in eligible hybrid journals during the term of the agreement. A list of covered journals is available in the Journal Search Tool. Fully open access (gold) journals only receive a discount, as noted below.	If you have any questions about journal eligibility, please email copyright@uwaterloo.ca.
Institute of Physics (IOP) (eligible journals only)	2025-01-01 - 2027-12-31	Papers, special issue papers, reviews, or letters accepted in journals included on the eligible IOP journals list. A list of covered journals is available in the Journal Search Tool.	IOP provides a guide to submitting under a Transformative Agreement.
International Water Association (IWA) Publishing	2025-01-01 - 2025-12-31	Articles accepted for publication in the eligible IWA journals. Use the Journal Search Tool; search "IWA" to see all journals covered under this agreement.	IWA provides information about their OA publishing model in their About Subscribe to Open page.
Microbiology Society	2025-01-01 - 2027-12-31	All accepted articles by researchers submitted using their @uwaterloo.ca email addresses to any Microbiology Society journal
Oxford University Press (Hybrid journals only)	2024-02-01 - 2026-12-31	Articles accepted for publication in eligible Oxford journals.	Step by step guide (PDF)
PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine	2025-01-01 - 2026-12-31	Papers published in PLOS Biology or PLOS Medicine	The Library covers APCs through PLOS' Community Action Publishing (CAP) program. More information about how the CAP program works for researchers is available on PLOS's Publishing FAQ page.
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)	2025-01-01 - 2027-12-31	Articles accepted for publication in all RSC hybrid and gold journals during the term of the agreement.
Sage (Hybrid journals only)	2024-01-01 - 2026-12-31	"Article" submission type papers, including but not limited to original research papers, review papers, brief communications, short reports or case reports, published in Sage Choice journals Note: Sage Gold Open Access journals (fully open access journals) are not included. Waterloo authors are entitled to a 40% discount when publishing in Sage Gold OA journals.	Sage will automatically contact you to inform you of the agreement and invite you to take up the offer in the Sage OA Portal. Sage provides a guide for authors publishing OA in a Sage Choice journal. Sage provides a summary on their page about Canadian OA deals.
Wiley (Hybrid journals only)	2025-01-01 - 2026-12-31	Eligible articles (case study, commentary, data article, education, lecture, method and protocol, perspective, practice and policy, rapid publication, research article, review article, short communication, or technical note) accepted for publication in Wiley's hybrid journals. Note: Wiley Gold Open Access journals (fully open access journals) are not included.	Wiley's Open Access agreement for eligible authors at participating CRKN institutions in Canada contains information about how Wiley manages this agreement.

Fees discounted

The Library participates in agreements with publishers that provide a discount on the cost of APCs for Waterloo researchers when they are the corresponding author (the first author). This means that publishing open access under the terms of the below agreements will be discounted by the amount shown below. In all cases, you must be the corresponding author and submit your article using University of Waterloo as your affiliation in order to receive the discount. It is helpful to submit using your University of Waterloo email address, but it is not required.

Publisher	Agreement length	Discount Amount	More information
ACS - American Chemical Society	2025-01-01 - 2027-12-31	$250 USD	The discount applies to ACS hybrid journals. The APC discount is applied upon acceptance of manuscript. Authors must indicate their institutional affiliation upon submitting of their manuscript in order to benefit from the discount. More information is available on the ACS OA pricing page, see "Subscriber Discounts".
BMC - BioMed Central	2025-01-01 - 2025-12-31	15%	The Library subscribes to a BioMed Central membership, which affords Waterloo researchers a discount on publication fees for fully open access BMC journals. Instructions on how to access the BioMed Central discount. You can be verified through your IP address while on campus or using the VPN, or manually assert your institutional affiliation.
Canadian Science Publishing (CSP) Journals (formerly NRC Research Press)	2023-01-01 - 2025-12-31	25%	This discount is applicable to hybrid open access journals only. The discount does not apply to any agricultural journals (Canadian Journal of Agricultural Science, Canadian Journal of Soil Science, Canadian Journal of Plant Science) or gold open access journals. CSP's (formerly NRC) open access page describes the various open access options offered.
Elsevier (Gold Open Access Journals)	2025-01-01 - 2025-12-31	15%	Waterloo affiliated researchers will be given a 20% discount on Elsevier APCs for their gold open access journals. To see if the journal you wish to publish in is included in the discount search Elsevier's title list for the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) deal.
MDPI	2024-04-01 - 2025-03-31	10%	Discounts are provided through the Institutional Open Access Program. MDPI verifies your institution affiliation via your IP address; ensure you are on campus or connected to the VPN when submitting your work.
Oxford University Press (Gold OA Journals)	2024-02-01 - 2026-12-31	10%	Waterloo affiliated researchers will receive a 10% discount on eligible gold OA journals [xlsx]
Sage Gold Open Access Journals *Sage journals that are fully open access	2024-01-01 - 2026-12-31	40%	Waterloo affiliated researchers will get a 40% discount on publishing fees associated with Sage Gold (fully open access) journals. Sage will automatically contact you to inform you of the discount and invite you to take up the offer in the Sage OA Portal. Sage provides a guide for authors publishing in Gold OA Sage journal. If you have any questions please send a message to copyright@uwaterloo.ca. Sage provides a summary of this on their page about Canadian OA deals.
SPIE Open Access Journals	2024-05-01 - 2025-04-30	25%	Read more about SPIE's open access offerings. The discount only applies to SPIE's fully open access journals - Advanced Photonics, Journal of Biomedical Optics, and Neurophotonics.
Springer Open	2025-01-01 - 2025-12-31	15%	Discount is on Springer's fully open Books and Journals, and does not apply to Springer's subscription titles with OA options. More information is available on the Springer Open access membership site.This discount does not apply to Nature or Palgrave journals, despite the companies having merged in recent years.
Taylor & Francis Open Select Journals	2022-01-01 - 2026-12-31	25%	The discount is only on Taylor & Francis Open Select Journals. When publishing open access in an Open Select journal, the discount will automatically applied when you choose University of Waterloo as your affiliation.
Wiley (Gold OA journals)	2025-01-01 - 2026-12-31	10%	Discount applies to Wiley Gold OA journals.

Library support for Open Access content and platforms

Aside from the agreements outlined above the Libraries also contribute to open access publishing organizations and platforms that rely on external funding to continue operations.

Supported content

Publishers

American Physiological Society: Select journals are funded using the Subscribe to Open model, where libraries maintain their institutional subscriptions which fund publishing and access for all researchers and readers.
Annual Reviews: Select journals are funded using the Subscribe to Open model, where libraries maintain their institutional subscriptions which fund publishing and access for all researchers and readers.
Bioline International: Bioline International is a not-for-profit scholarly publishing cooperative committed to providing open access to quality research journals published in developing countries.
Mathematical Sciences Publishers. The Library supports all five of MSPs Subscribe to Open Journals.
MIT Press Direct to Open eBooks: By participating in Direct to Open, libraries shift from buying digital monographs from the MIT Press once for a single collection to funding them once for the world.
Open Library of the Humanities (OLH): OLH is a charitable organization dedicated to publishing open access scholarship with no author-facing article processing charges (APCs). Funded by an international consortium of libraries who have joined in the mission to make scholarly publishing fairer, more accessible, and rigorously preserved for the digital future.
punctum books: punctum books is "an independent open-access publisher dedicated to radically creative modes of intellectual inquiry and writing across a whimsical para-humanities assemblage."
Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (SCOAP³): SCOAP³ aims to convert to Open Access the peer-reviewed literature in the field of High-Energy Physics by re-directing, on a global level, funds currently used to subscribe to these journals.

Journals

EDP Sciences
- RAIRO: Theoretical Informatic & Applications
European Mathematical Society Press. The Library supports three EMS Press journals. EMS Press publishes a total of 22 journals and all of them were made OA (free to publish in, free to read) through subscriptions from libraries around the world.
- Journal of Fractal Geometry
- Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici
- Journal of the European Mathematical Society
Liverpool University Press
- Town Planning Review
University of Toronto Press
- Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy

Supported platforms

arXiv: Arxiv provides open access to e-prints in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance and statistics. Owned and operated by Cornell University.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
Dryad: Dryad is an international data publishing platform and community committed to the open availability and routine reuse of all research data.
OpenCitations: OpenCitations is an independent infrastructure organization for open scholarship dedicated to the publication of open bibliographic and citation data using Semantic Web (Linked Data) technologies. OpenCitations has the potential to give institutions and individuals the ability to analyse and reuse publication citations in library collections, other infrastructures and in research. Funded through the CRKN and the Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS).
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC): SPARC is a global coalition committed to making Open Access the default for research and education. SPARC empowers people to solve big problems and make new discoveries through the adoption of policies and practices that advance Open Access, Open Data and Open Education.