1. Where can I publish my article in Open Access without extra costs?
What is Open Access?
Open Access (OA) is a mechanism by which research outputs are distributed online, free of cost or other barriers, and with the addition of an open license that removes most restrictions on use and reuse.
Conventional (non-open access) journals cover publishing costs through access tolls such as subscriptions, site licenses or pay-per-view charges. Conventional journals are transforming rapidly to Hybrid journals, publishing both OA and non-OA research output.
In general, distinction is being made of two types of OA:
Gold OA - the author pays the publisher (Article Processing Charges, APCs)
Green OA - a.k.a. self-archiving - a copy of the research output in the form of a manuscript-preprint, a manuscript postprint, or the publisher pdf (if allowed) can be hosted for free on an open access repository, such as the Leiden Repository, mostly after an embargo period.
Where can I publish my article in Open Access for free?
At an excel file can be found containing ca journals where the Article Processing Charges (APCs) have already been paid by your library.
NB1: this excel file can be replaced any moment including the link to it, so it is important to check this file through this link when searching for a journal (saving this file locally might lead to obsolete and incorrect information).
NB2: in this file the column APC-discount is important. For most journals, the APCs cover 100% of the costs, but for ca. 600 there is only a reduction available (in the order of 20%, 25% or 90%).
NB3:  in this file the column Available for Univ is also important. The APCs of ca journals have been taken care of for all Dutch universities, but for ca the APCs have already been paid for only one or some universities.
Plan S - Guidelines for compliance with Plan S:
To comply with Plan S, publications must meet three key requirements:
1.Immediate open access (no embargoes)
2.Full copyright retention for authors or their institutions
3.Open license (recommended CC BY 4.0)
There are three routes to compliance:
• Open Access publishing in journals or on platforms: authors publish in a Plan S compliant Open Access journal or on a Plan S compliant Open Access platform.
• Subscription venues (repository route): Immediately upon publication the final published version of a scholarly publication or an Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM) appears in a Repository.
• Transition of subscription venues (transformative arrangements): authors publish Open Access in a subscription journal under a transformative arrangement.
More information and assistance:
- the OA info on the Walaeus Library Website (
For more information/questions about Open Access publications contact:
For questions about Plan S contact:
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