Open access: ÅAU's funding for open access fees

In Chronoshubs Journal Guide, you – if you are an ÅAU-affiliated researcher – can find out how to publish your peer-reviewed article open access (OA) even before you choose a journal and submit your article manuscript.

In the guide:

1. You will find information on in which journals you can publish open access without an APC fee (article processing charge) or with a discount on the fee, mainly through ÅAU's Read and Publish agreements managed by FinELib.
2. You can apply for funds from ÅAU's APC pool to cover the APC fee for publishing in full OA journals before you submit your article.

The guide covers over 51,000 journals, collected from journals indexed in the Scopus database, full OA journals mentioned in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and journals evaluated by the Publication Forum (JUFO). You can find a specific journal or browse journals within a certain subject area using keywords and subject filters. You can also filter journals according to JUFO level or publisher and find out which journals meet the requirements of research funders (mainly Plan S funders, such as Research Council of Finland and Horizon Europe).

How to use Chronoshub's Journal Guide:

• Click on the link above, no login is required.
• The guide will tell you which journals and publishers have entered into open access agreements with ÅAU and the conditions that the agreement requires, for example, that you as the corresponding author must be ÅAU-affiliated and use your ÅAU email address.
• The guide also indicates if a journal is not included in any agreement, but meets the requirements to have the APC fee paid by the APC pool. If this is the case, you can apply for support from the APC pool in Chronoshub using the Open Access Check and Apply-form below. You will receive an automatic email response to your application where you are asked to log in with Haka login and complete your application. Follow the instructions you receive by email. Note that Chronoshub will not let you proceed with the application if the journal does not meet the APC pool's requirements or if the journal is included in an agreement that allows you to publish open access for free.
• In the Open Access Check and Apply-form below, you can directly find individual journals and apply for funds from the APC pool.

If a journal is missing from the guide, you can suggest that it can be added to Chronoshub by clicking on the Cannot find your journal-button in the upper-right corner of the Journal Guide.

Corresponding authors apply for funds from the APC pool via the Open Access Check and Apply-form before the article is submitted.

ÅAU-affiliated corresponding authors are granted funds from the APC pool for a maximum of 2 articles/year. However, you can be a co-author of other articles whose corresponding authors apply for support from the APC pool.

Researchers with external research funds are expected to pay the APC from their own project budget if the funder allows this.

Funds from the APC pool are granted for:

• journals with JUFO class 1-3
• peer-reviewed articles in full OA journals (registered in DOAJ.org) where all articles are immediately openly available and no paywalls exist. How do I find reliable full OA journals?
  • If you wish to publish in a full OA journal that is not indexed in DOAJ, please contact openscience@abo.fi to negotiate the terms.
• journals that offer open licenses, preferably a CC-BY license

Applications are usually answered within five working days. Applications are not processed in July and with delays around longer holidays.
All applications are evaluated by ÅAU's team for open science (under the supervision of the Vice-Rector for Research).

If your article is rejected by the journal, please inform us at openscience@abo.fi. Please submit a new application to the APC-pool if you want to publish OA in another journal.

The BPC pool grants funds for OA publishing of peer-reviewed books.

Updated 14.4.2025. The BPC pool does not process new applications.

Funds from the BPC pool are granted only for:

• ÅAU-affiliated researchers, i.e., ÅAU-employed researchers (all levels) OR Researchers with agreements for non-employed staff (scholars with agreements for non-employed, all levels) OR Emeriti
• monographs (C1 publications) that have been peer-reviewed by external reviewers, i.e., not by the book's editors
• book publishers or book series with JUFO level 2-3
• publishers that offer open licenses, preferably a CC-BY license
• sustainable monographs with equal access, e.g., if a central readership only gets access to the book if it is openly published

Funds from the BPC pool are not granted for:

• edited works or individual chapters

How to apply for funds from the BPC pool?

Send the following information to openscience@abo.fi:

• The author(s) and affiliation(s) of the monograph
• Publisher, book series, and the working title of the work
• Estimated BPC costs (in euros, including VAT). For co-authored works where the authors are affiliated with other Finnish universities, the costs are shared between the universities
• Any other funding sources, e.g., project funds or the possibility of shared costs between universities
• Estimated publication date
• Available open licenses. Preferably CC-BY 4.0 license, but if such is not offered by the publisher, CC-BY-NC and CC-BY-NC-ND licenses are accepted
• Other reasons why the work should be open

In the overall assessment, both the above criteria and the BPC costs are considered. Individual assessment is made on a case-by-case basis. The evaluation group consists of the Chief Librarian, the Vice Rector for Research, and the Leading Coordinator for Open Science.

The journal I want to publish in is a hybrid journal (only some articles are open access, i.e., publishing open access is an extra service) and ÅAU does not seem to have an agreement with the publisher. How do I publish open access?

If the journal is not included in our agreements, parallel publishing in AboCRIS is the only way to publish open access in the journal.

Why does ÅAU not pay the APC to open articles in hybrid journals?

Many hybrid journals, where only certain articles are open while others are behind a paywall, are covered by ÅAU's Read & Publish agreements. In them, you can publish your article openly without paying an APC.

Publishing open articles in hybrid journals that are not included in ÅAU's Read & Publish agreements means that ÅAU would pay the publisher both a subscription/license fee and an APC (so-called "double dipping"). Such double fees do not constitute responsible research publishing, which ÅAU has committed to supporting. Therefore, ÅAU requires that you, who publish behind a paywall, instead parallel publish your article in AboCRIS according to the publisher's guidelines.

In Chronoshub's journal guide, it is stated that an agreement exists for the journal I want to publish in. Can I reserve a voucher now to ensure that I can publish for free?

Vouchers for OA publishing cannot be reserved in advance. The article quotas are usually national. When the article has been accepted for publication, you can publish for free if the agreement allows for it. Always follow the publisher-specific instructions on finelib.fi.

Why does ÅAU not pay the BPC fee to open individual articles/chapters in scientific books?

Opening individual book chapters is a form of hybrid publishing that does not meet the requirements for responsible research publishing (see above). Therefore, ÅAU requires that you parallel publish book chapters in AboCRIS according to the publisher's guidelines.

Which Creative Commons license should I choose for my article?

ÅAU recommends authors to choose CC BY to maximize the dissemination of the article. Plan S funders, such as Research Council of Finland and Horizon Europe, require CC BY in the first place. Typically, journals provide only one license option. Read more about CC licenses here.