Nagoya University
Open Access Publishing Support

Information about Open Access Publishing Support

OA Publishing Agreements and Discounts

What is APC?

When publishing your article in Open Access, you will often be charged a fee called the Article Processing Charge (APC). Nagoya University has various agreements with several publishers to make Open Access publishing easy and inexpensive for researchers.

Note that since APCs are usually paid individually by researchers, it is difficult to determine the total amount of APCs for the university as a whole. In order to negotiate with publishers and to consider the university's policy on support for article submissions, it is necessary to understand the status of APC payments across the university. When paying APC, please complete the APC Payment Survey.

APC Discount Information by Publisher

  • Discount: See ACS page.
    • Nagoya University falls under "All ACS Publications Subscribing Institutions". See prices in the "Subscribing Institution Pricing".
    • If you are a member of ACS, "ACS member prices" will apply. See prices in the "Member at Subscribing Institution Pricing".
  • Eligible journals: All ACS journals　*Some journals are also eligible to apply for support for submitting articles to high-impact journals [on-campus only].
  • Procedure: The author receives an email when the article is accepted. Follow the instructions provided in the email to get APC discount. [Details]
  • If you do not choose Open Access: No submission fee will be charged.
  • Discount: 100% (no cost to author)
  • Number of discounts available for the entire university: Unlimited
  • Eligible journals: The following 5 journals
  • Procedure: Corresponding Author must be affiliated with Nagoya University. Library staff will verify your affiliation and approve your application for Open Access publication, so the Corresponding Author should use your NU or THERS email at the time of submission. [Details] [Guide for Authors (in Japanese/English)]
  • Effective dates:
    • January 1, 2024-December 31, 2026　Articles of 5 journals for which notification of decision to publish is received by the author within this period are eligible.
  • If you do not choose Open Access: No submission fee will be charged.
  • Discount: 10%
  • Number of discounts available for the entire university: Unlimited
  • Eligible journals: List [on-campus only]*All hybrid journals and full open access journals included in the list are eligible.
  • Procedure: Authors must be affiliated with Nagoya University. Authors' institutional affiliations are identified by the domain of their e-mail address, so please use your NU or THERS email at the time of submission. [Guide for Authors]
  • Effective dates: January 1, 2021-December 31, 2024　Articles accepted during this period are eligible.
  • If you do not choose Open Access: No submission fee will be charged.
  • Discount: depends on the type of open access you choose
    • If you choose Gold OA, which is immediate open access: 100% (no cost to author)
    • If you choose Green OA, which will be open access after 6 months: no discount
  • Number of discounts available for the entire university: Unlimited
  • Eligible journals: The following 3 journals:
  • Procedure: Corresponding Author must be affiliated with Nagoya University. [Guide for Authors]
  • Effective dates: January 1, 2023-December 31, 2025　Articles accepted during this period are eligible.
  • Discount: 100％
  • Number of discount available for the entire unibersity: 19
    • From the 20th article, APC payment is required, but a 15% discount is available.
  • Eligible journals: Hybrid and transformative journals
  • Procedure: Authors must be affiliated with Nagoya University. The author receives an email when the article is accepted. Follow the instructions provided in the email to publish Open Access.
  • Effective dates: January 1, 2025-December 31, 2025

Funding Acknowledge

If you would like to include an acknowledgment in your article, please write: "Open Access funding provided by Nagoya University."

  • It is not mandatory to include this information.
  • Some publishers automatically include a default acknowledgment. You may use the default wording provided by the publisher.

Support for Submitting Articles to High-Impact Journals

Support for submitting articles to high-impact journals [on-campus only]

APC Payment Survey

Request for your cooperation in the APC payment survey

In order to negotiate with publishers and to consider the university's policy on support for article submissions, it is necessary to understand the status of APC payments across the university.

Therefore, please enter "APC: (journal name) " at the item name when entering article publication fees including APCs into the financial accounting system after April 1, 2019.
(Example) APC: Nature Communications

[Reference] Request Notification Document for this Survey (in Japanese)

APCs covered in this survey

The following payments are subject to this survey:

  • Paying for publication in an open access journal (a journal that is made available free of charge from the publisher's or society's website) including APC.
    e.g. BioMed Central, MDPI, Public Library of Science (PLOS), Nature Communications, Scientific Reports, etc.
  • If you choose the Open Access option for a subscription-based e-journal and pay an article publication fee including APC.
    e.g. Open Access fee, Open Select, Open Choice, APC (Article Processing Charge), article processing fee, etc.
  • Other publication fees, including open access fees.

*If the payment is combined with other expenses, it is covered in this survey as long as even a portion of the payment is an Open Access expense.

Beware of the Predatory Journals

What is a predatory journal?

Open access journals are peer-reviewed and produced using APCs (article processing charges) paid by authors, and published articles are available to everyone on the Internet. It has become clear that there are predatory journals (predatory publishers) that abuse this publication model and unfairly exploit APCs without peer-reviewing or editing articles.

If you submit an article to these kinds of journals, you not only risk being charged an unfairly high fees, but you may also not be able to retract your article. In addition, it may undermine credibility of you, your co-authors, and your institution.

How to identify predatory journals

It is very difficult to determine whether any given journal, or a journal with certain characteristics, is a predatory journal. Beall's List of Potential Predatory Journals and Publishers (a list created by American librarian Jeffrey Beall that has been since revived by volunteers) presents a list of suspected predatory journals. However, do not assume that a journal on the list must be predatory or a journal not on the list must not be predatory. Predatory journals can repeatedly cease or restart operations, and journal assessments can also change.


When choosing a journal to submit to, it is best to not only refer to a list of predatory journals, but also make a comprehensive judgement based on whether or not the journal has characteristics of a predatory journal. Cabells Predatory Reports, a database to search for information about predatory journals, lists the selection criteria for suspicious journals (Cabells Predatory Reports Criteria). A variety of institutions offer their own checklists, such as Think, Check, Submit, the Kumamoto University URA Promotion Office and the "Beware of Predatory Journals" leaflet from the Kyoto University Library.


Examples of characteristics of journals suspected to be predatory

  • The peer review process and fees are not clear
  • The time it takes for peer review is unusually quick for no clear reason
  • There is no contact information
  • The names and affiliations of editorial board members are not public, or are falsified
  • The journal claims to be indexed in well-known databases, when in reality it is not
    The databases below use certain criteria to select which journals can be searched on those databases.
    • SCOPUS (Elsevier's comprehensive citation database)
    • Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics' comprehensive citation database)
    • DOAJ (a database where open access scientific journals that meet the criteria can be searched)
  • There are grammatical and spelling errors on the journal website
  • The same authors are published numerous times in the same journal, or the editors themselves publish in their own journal

Contact

Electronic Resources Section (Journals), Information Control Division
Nagoya University Library
lib-ers::t.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp (convert :: to @)