What happens to my application for funding to pay open access fees / article processing charges (APCs)

The Library’s open access team will ensure that they have all the information they need to process your application. They will check that:

• the open access option offered by the journal or conference proceedings meets the open access policies of the funders acknowledged in the work
• the APC is for open access immediately on publication on the publisher’s website and, if the journal is open access, that it is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals
• the article has been accepted for publication but is not already published 
• the amount requested matches the open access fee displayed on the publisher’s website and does not include other charges such as colour, submission and page charges
• if the article qualifies for a discount under one of Imperial's Publisher agreements and discounts

If approved, you will receive email confirmation and further instructions. You should then contact the publisher confirming you wish to make your article open access, requesting  the correct licence (CC BY) and providing the purchase order (PO) number, VAT number and correct billing address for the invoice. Processing time for APC applications is normally 2-5 days.

A member of the OA team will contact you if further information is required. If we are unable to resolve the issue your application will be rejected. However, by depositing your manuscript in Spiral via Symplectic it will become open access, in Imperial’s repository, after any embargo periods have expired.

A common reason for rejecting an application is that a publisher's open access options are not compliant with a UK research funder's policy. Learned and professional society publishers frequently fall into this category and we strongly recommend that you check the compliance of these journals with your funder's open access policy before submitting a paper. If your work is funded by UKRI(RCUK), Wellcome Trust/CRUK/BHF, you can consult SHERPA FACT to find out if your preferred journal is compliant, or contact the open access team for help.