Funding of Article Processing Charges (APCs)

Many funding agencies explicitly allow the use of research grants for the payment of Article Processing Charges (APCs) to publish in open access journals or of Book Processing Charges (BPCs) to publish open access books. In addition, numerous institutes have created central funds to cover APCs and BPCs.

General Resources for Open Access Funding:

• Sherpa Juliet is a searchable database of research funders' open access policies.

• The Open Access Directory maintains a list of institutional funds for open access publishing.

• SPARC maintains a list of North American universities and university libraries that have created open access funds.

Research funders that endorse Open Access publishing:

• In Australia
  • Australian Research Council (ARC)
  • National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
• In Austria
  • Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
  • Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development (APPEAR)
  • Vienna Science and Technology Fund
• In Belgium
  • BELSPO (Orfeo Open Access Repository)
  • FWO Flanders University
  • Belgian Scientific Research Fund (FRS-FNRS)
• In Bulgaria
  • Bulgarian National Science Fund
• In Canada
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
  • Canadian Cancer Society (CCS1)
  • Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement (CFHI)
  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
  • International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
• In China
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
• In Croatia
  • Croatian Science Foundation
  • Faculty of Humanity and Social Sciences (University of Zagreb)
  • Ministry of Science, Education and Sports
• In Cyprus
  • CUT Open Access Author Fund
  • Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation
• In Czech Republic
  • Brno University of Technology
  • Czech Science Foundation (GACR)
• In Denmark
  • Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF)
  • Innovation Fund Denmark
  • Independent Research Fund Denmark
  • University of Southern Denmark
• In Estonia
  • Estonian Research Council (ETAG)
• In Ethiopia
  • International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
• In Europe in general
  • European Research Council (ERC)
  • European Commission (EC) FP7 and Horizon2020
  • Science With and For Society (SWAFS)
  • European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST)
• In Finland
  • Academy of Finland (Suomen Akatemia)
  • Tekes—The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation
• In France
  • French National Research Agency
  • National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)
  • Tara Expeditions Foundation
• In Germany
  • Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
  • German Research Foundation (DFG)
  • Helmholtz Association
  • Fraunhofer Society
  • Max Planck Society
  • Leibniz Association
• In Greece
  • Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation
• In Hungary
  • Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)
  • National Research, Development and Innovation Office
  • University of Szeged
• In Iceland
  • Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís)
• In Ireland
  • Irish Research Council
  • Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)
  • Health Research Board
  • Marine Institute
  • Environmental Protection Agency
• In Israel
  • Israel Science Foundation
• In Italy
  • Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR)
  • Telethon Foundation
  • Cariplo Foundation
• In Japan
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
• In Kenya
  • International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
• In Latvia
  • Ministry of Education and Science
• In Lithuania
  • Research Council of Lithuania
• In Luxembourg
  • Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)
  • University of Luxembourg
• In Mexico
  • CINVESTAV
• In the Netherlands
  • Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
  • Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
  • Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)
  • Dutch Cancer Society (KWF)
  • Tillburg University
  • TU Delft
  • University of Utrecht
• In Norway
  • Ministry of Education and Research
  • Research Council of Norway (RCN)
• In Portugal
  • Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)
• In Singapore
  • Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
• In Slovakia
  • Cultural and Educational Grant Agency (KEGA)
  • Scientific Grant Agency (VEGA)
  • Slovak Research and Development Agency
• In Slovenia
  • Ministry of Education, Science and Sport
  • Slovenian Research Agency
• In Spain
  • Comunidad de Madrid
  • Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
• In South Africa
  • National Research Foundation (NRF)
  • Stellenbosch University
  • University of Cape Town
  • University of Pretoria
• In Sweden
  • Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research
  • Swedish Research Council
  • Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS)
  • Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare
  • Riksbanken Jubileumsfond
• In Switzerland
  • Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
  • European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
• In Turkey
  • Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)
• In the United Kingdom
  • The Wellcome Trust
  • UK Research and Innovation
  • Office for Students
  • The Leverhulme Trust
  • Department for International Development (DFID)
  • National Heritage Science Forum (NHSF)
  • Arthritis Research UK
  • British Heart Foundation (BHF)
  • Cancer Research UK
  • Department of Health, National Institute for Health Research (NHS, NIHR)
  • Dunhill Medical Trust
  • Parkinson’s UK
• In the USA
  • National Science Foundation (NSF)
  • SPARC
  • Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
  • Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)

Authors affiliated with an institute participating in our open access program receive discounts on APCs:

The MDPI Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) provides discounts on the APCs to authors from participating institutes. During submission of an article, the author can select and confirm the affiliation directly in our online system. If a participant provides us with the IP range information of the institute, an automatic pre-selection can be made in the system.

The corresponding or leading authors of a paper must be associated with the listed institutes to benefit of the discount. The institute can decide if the APCs are to be paid centrally (central invoicing), or paid in full by the authors (non-central invoicing).

The full list of existing IOAP participants can be found here.

Open Access initiatives also help authors with publishing costs:

MDPI is proud to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched (KU) initiative, which covers Article Processing Charges (APCs) for papers in Humanities and Social Sciences titles through a crowd-funding mechanism.

As of 2018, APCs for some articles published in the following MDPI journals are covered via the KU funding mechanism:

• Religions
• Econometrics
• Games
• Laws
• Social Sciences
• Humanities
• Risks
• Societies
• International Journal of Financial Studies

This is a pilot program experimenting ways to support authors to submit and publish for free in open access.

A number of institutions around the world have kindly participated in this initiative and we would like to thank them for generously providing their support and contribution:

James Cook University	Australia
MacQuarie University	Australia
Queensland University of Technology	Australia
University of New England	Australia
La Trobe University	Australia
University of Melbourne	Australia
University of Queensland	Australia
University of South Australia	Australia
Memorial University of Newfoundland	Canada
Simon Fraser University	Canada
University of Guelph	Canada
University of Toronto	Canada
York University (CA)	Canada
McGill University	Canada
Dartmouth College	United States
Denison University	United States
East Carolina University	United States
Grand Valley State University	United States
Indiana University Bloomington	United States
Iowa State University	United States
Macalester College	United States
Smith College	United States
SUNY at Albany	United States
Temple University	United States
University of California Berkeley	United States
University of California San Diego	United States
University of California Los Angeles	United States
University of California Merced	United States
University of Colorado Boulder	United States
University of Denver	United States
University of Oregon	United States
University of Texas System	United States
Washburn University	United States
Williams College	United States
University of Rhode Island	United States
Duke University	United States
Harvard University	United States
Kenyon College	United States
Purdue University	United States
University of Kansas	United States
University of Virginia	United States
Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) (Ruhr University Bochum)	Germany
Universitätsbibliothek der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Humboldt University Berlin)	Germany
Universitätsbibliothek Marburg	Germany
Universitätsbibliothek Potsdam	Germany
Freie Universität Berlin (FU) (Free University of Berlin)	Germany
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main (University of Frankfurt/M)	Germany
Technische Universität (TU) Berlin (Technical University Berlin)	Germany
Fernuniversität Hagen (University of Hagen)	Germany
Max Planck Digital Library	Germany
Universitätsbibliothek Bern (University Library of Berne)	Switzerland
University of St. Gallen	Switzerland
Zentralbibliothek Zürich (Central Library of Zurich)	Switzerland
Ashesi University College	Ghana
John Cabot University	Italy
Tilburg University	Netherlands
Universiteit van Amsterdam	Netherlands
Forman Christian College	Pakistan
Örebro University	Sweden
Stockholm University	Sweden
Cardiff University	United Kingdom
The British Library	United Kingdom
University of Leicester	United Kingdom
University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
University of Manchester	United Kingdom
University of Northampton	United Kingdom
University of Salford	United Kingdom
University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
University of Exeter	United Kingdom
University of Surrey	United Kingdom
American University of Paris	France
Bibliothèque royale de Belgique (Royal Library of Belgium)	Belgium

Read more about KU here: http://www.knowledgeunlatched.org