York Open Access Fund

If you are a researcher at the University of York you can request funding from York Open Access Fund to pay open access fees for articles, books and chapters.

You do not need to request funding if:

York Open Access Fund consists of several funding streams. The eligibility criteria for these vary depending on the funding source (either the University or a funding body) and the type of publication. The main funding bodies involved are UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Wellcome Trust. The institutional open access fund is funded from the Library budget.

The Library will decide which funding stream is most appropriate for your publication, based on the information you provide in your application. However, we recommend that you review the criteria, listed below, before committing to any costs. Please note that we cannot provide funding if your publication does not meet one of these sets of criteria. 

Contact us

Open Research team
Email lib-open-research@york.ac.uk or book an online appointment

Request Open Access funding

We advise that you submit your request as early in the publication process as possible and before committing to any costs with your publisher. (You can request funds before submission for publication). If we approve your request, but it later turns out that the funding is no longer required, please let us know, so that we can release the funds for others.

Eligibility criteria

  • The open access fee must not be eligible for payment by a research funder, including via a research grant.
  • At least one of the authors must be a member of staff, postgraduate researcher, or emeritus/emerita affiliated to the University of York on the date when the article is submitted for publication. The University of York must be given as the institutional affiliation on the published article. (Undergraduate and postgraduate taught students are not eligible to apply for the fund).
  • The article must be a peer reviewed research article, review article, protocol, or method article. 
  • The article must be published in a fully open access journal or platform listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, or in a fully open access conference proceeding. 
  • The article must be made open access immediately on publication.
  • The article must be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.
  • The open access fee must not exceed £3,000, excluding VAT. The fund cannot be used to pay towards open access fees that are over £3,000, even where the excess can be paid from other sources.
  • Other costs associated with publishing, such as colour charges, overlength charges, cover image charges and submission charges cannot be paid.
  • The article must include a data access statement where appropriate.
  • The article must acknowledge support from one or more of the UKRI research councils. (Articles acknowledging support from Research England via directly funded projects are eligible, but not those supported via the quality related income received following the REF).
  • At least one of the authors must be a member of staff, postgraduate researcher, or emeritus/emerita affiliated to the University of York on the date when the article is submitted for publication. The University of York must be given as the institutional affiliation on the published article.
  • The article must be a peer-reviewed research article, or review article.
  • The article must be published in one of the following: a fully open access journal listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals; a fully open access conference proceeding; a fully open access publication platform; a hybrid journal with Jisc-approved transitional journal status. The Plan S Journal Checker Tool can be used to check eligibility and publication routes.
  • The article must be made open access immediately on publication.
  • The article must be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. 
  • Submission fees can be paid if an open access fee is being paid as well for the same article (i.e. only if the article is accepted for publication and results in open access publication).
  • Other costs associated with publishing, such as colour charges, overlength charges and cover image charges cannot be paid.
  • The article must include a data access statement where appropriate.
  • The article must acknowledge support from Wellcome Trust.
  • At least one of the authors must be a member of staff, postgraduate researcher, or emeritus/emerita affiliated to the University of York on the date when the article is submitted for publication. The University of York must be given as the institutional affiliation on the published article.
  • The article must be a peer-reviewed research article, research/study protocol, systematic review, scoping review or meta-analysis.
  • The article must be published in one of the following: a fully open access journal listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals; a fully open access conference proceedings; a fully open access publication platform; a hybrid journal with Plan S-approved transitional journal status. The Plan S Journal Checker Tool can be used to check eligibility and publication routes.
  • The article must be made open access immediately on publication.
  • Articles must be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.
  • Other costs associated with publishing, such as colour charges, overlength charges, cover image charges and submission charges cannot be paid.
  • The article must include a data access statement where appropriate.
  • The fund can pay for monographs, textbooks, edited collections, or individual book chapters to be made open access immediately on publication.
  • The prospective publisher must operate on a fully open access model. Open access publishers will often charge for physical copies of books or for other services, but all new books published by the publisher should be made available in a digital format, in full, for no charge to the reader.  
  • All requests will be subject to final consideration by the Library and dependent on funding availability.
  • Open access publication fees cannot exceed £10,000 (including VAT) for a book (monograph or edited collection) or £1,000 (including VAT) for a book chapter. Charges should be transparently accounted for and must be reasonable in consideration of the length and complexity of the published work.
  • The open access fee must not be eligible for payment by a research funder, including via a research grant.
  • At least one of the authors must be a member of staff, postgraduate researcher, or emeritus/emerita affiliated to the University of York on the date when the publication contract is signed. The University of York must be given as the institutional affiliation on the published work.
  • The work should be published with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence, though where necessary other Creative Commons licences may be used. For further guidance, see Creative Commons for Researchers: a Practical Guide.

UKRI has a centrally-held fund to pay open access fees for UKRI funded books and chapters. If you are planning to publish a UKRI funded book or chapter, you can submit a request via the form that is linked to from this page and the Library will request open access funding from UKRI on your behalf. UKRI will not accept direct requests from authors. 

  • The publication must acknowledge support from one or more of the UKRI research councils. (Articles acknowledging support from Research England via directly funded projects are eligible, but not those supported via the quality related income received following the REF).
  • At least one of the authors must be a member of staff, postgraduate researcher, or emeritus/emerita affiliated to the University of York on the date when the publication contract is signed. The University of York must be given as the institutional affiliation on the published work.
  • The publication must be a monograph, book chapter, or edited collection published on or after 1 January 2024. 
  • The work must be published under a Creative Commons licence. Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) is preferred by UKRI. An Open Government Licence is also permitted when authors are subject to Crown Copyright. For further guidance, see Creative Commons for Researchers: a Practical Guide
  • UKRI will pay a total of £10,000 inc. VAT for a monograph or edited collection and a total of £1,000 inc. VAT for a book chapter.
  • Third party rights fees can also be paid, up to a limit of £2,000 inc VAT, if they cannot be paid from a research grant.

Funding for Wellcome funded books and chapters must be requested directly from Wellcome Trust.

Contact us

Open Research team
Email lib-open-research@york.ac.uk or book an online appointment