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Scholarly Communication

This guide gives an overview of scholarly communication, Open Access, and research metrics

UNBC APC Waivers

Currently the following publishers provide discounts to UNBC scholars for APCs:

American Chemical Society Microbiology Society
Cambridge University Press Oxford University Press
Canadian Science Publishing Royal Society of Chemistry
Elsevier Sage
IEEE Taylor & Francis
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development Wiley
Journal of City, Climate Policy and Economy  

UNBC Library has signed a license (2022-2024) with the American Chemical Society to offer Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN)-affiliated authors a $250 USD flat discount.  APC discount is applied upon submission of manuscript. Authors must identify their institutional affiliation in order to qualify for the discount.

UNBC Library has signed a license with Cambridge University Press (2022-2024) to offer Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN)-affiliated authors uncapped, no-cost Open Access publishing in all hybrid and gold OA Cambridge journals (including journals in the "Cambridge Prisms" and "Research Directions" series).  Cambridge uses an automated system so UNBC authors only need to identify themselves as affiliated with UNBC to have the APC waiver applied.  See Step-by-Step Guide to Publishing Open Access in Cambridge Journals.

UNBC Library has signed a license with Canadian Science Publishing (2023-2025) for unlimited Open Access publishing in 5 selected journals:

  1. Biochemistry and Cell Biology
  2. Canadian Journal of Physics
  3. Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
  4. Genome
  5. Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering

For the remaining CSP journals, Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN)-affiliated authors receive a 25% APC discount.  Authors must indicate their institutional affiliation upon submitting of their manuscript in order to benefit from the discount.  The following Gold OA journals are not eligible for the 25% discount:

  • Arctic Science,
  • Drone Systems and Applications, and
  • FACETS. 

UNBC Library has signed a license with Elsevier (2024-2026) to offer Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN)-affiliated authors a 100% discount on APCs for hybrid journals and 20% discount on Gold (native) OA journals (reducing to 15% in 2025-26 and 10% in 2027).   APC discount is applied upon submission of manuscript . Authors must identify their institutional affiliation in order to qualify for the discount.  Please review the author workflow.  Several journals are excluded from the APC waiver, such as Cell Press, Lancet, and some other society owned journals. Click here to view the list of titles included in this agreement.

 

 

UNBC Library has signed a license (2025) with the IEEE to offer UNBC-affiliated authors a 15% APC discount. Authors must identify their institutional affiliation in order to qualify for the discount.  There is likely to be a confusing process whereby authors request funding from the Library, which the Library will then decline (as we don't have funding for APCs specifically).  The request will then be returned to the author and the 15% discount applied.  Please get in touch with Heather Empey with any questions.

JAFSCD (Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development) is now Open Access and the $500 APC is waived as the Library is a "shareholder".

 Journal of City, Climate, Policy, and Economy is now Open Access and the APC is waived as the Library is a "subscribe to open" (S2O) member.

UNBC Library has signed a "publish and read" license with the Microbiology Society (2025-2027).  This license covers unlimited OA publishing: any article published in Society journals where the corresponding author is from a Publish and Read institution will be OA by default with no APCs.

Microbiology Society titles include:

UNBC Library has signed a license with Oxford University Press (2024-2026) to offer Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN)-affiliated authors a 100% discount on APCs for hybrid journals and 10% discount on Gold (native) OA journals.  Upon article acceptance for publication in a hybrid journal, the corresponding author will begin the publication workflow process within OUP's system. A customized message notifies the author upon login that their accepted article is eligible for open access at no cost (will refer to their institution and CRKN as providers) and the default selection for the author is to publish the article open access at no charge. Authors must identify themselves as affiliated with a participating CRKN institution in order for their article to be verified and approved for no charge OA under the agreement. An autocomplete form will populate with institutional affiliations as the author types, and the institution names are pulled from the Ringgold institutional hierarchy.  Please review the step-by-step guide to open access publishing for authors.  A list of eligible hybrid journals is available for download here. 

 

UNBC Library has signed a license with the Royal Society of Chemistry (2025-2027) to offer Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN)--affilated authors a 100% APC waiver in all RSC hybrid and gold journals.  The APC waiver process should be automatic following the steps below:

  • Author submits article to a hybrid RSC journal following the standard process.
  • On acceptance of the manuscript, authors receive an email with a link to the licensing system.
  • The system automatically identifies the eligibility of the author based on the email domain (authors must use their institutional email in order to qualify for the discount).
  • The author selects either the standard license (subscription article) or Open Access license.  If the author chooses Open Access, they are given the option of two Creative Commons licenses (CC-BY or CC-BY NC).

UNBC Library has signed a license with SAGE (2024-2026) to offer Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN)-affiliated authors a 100% discount on APCs for hybrid journals and 40% discount on Gold (native) OA journals. SAGE Open Access Portal (SOAP) is a centralized portal that automates SAGE's open access publication process. The following steps briefly outline the manuscript submission process. Please consult the user guide which outlines the author’s workflow and the article acceptance process.

  1. Authors must indicate their institution affiliation upon manuscript submission. Authors are encouraged to also use an email with an institutional domain to facilitate the identification of eligible articles.
  2. Once an article is accepted, the author will receive an email notification if their article is eligible under the terms of this agreement. For articles accepted in gold open access journals, the APC discount is automatically applied upon acceptance of manuscript.
  3. Authors can accept or decline to publish their article open access from within the SAGE Open Access Portal (SOAP). If an author declines to publish in open access, their article will be published via the subscription route.
  4. Authors can also select their copyright license and assign a payer (i.e. funding agency, institution, or a different bill payer), and make the APC payment from within the Portal.

The list of SAGE Choice hybrid journals eligible to have their APC fees waived for open access publication is available here. The list of gold OA journals eligible to receive the 40% discount on APC fees is available here.

UNBC Library has signed a license (2025-2026) with Taylor & Francis to offer UNBC-affiliated authors a 25% APC discount for T&F Open Select (hybrid) journals. Authors must identify their institutional affiliation in order to qualify for the discount.  Please review the details of this agreement as well as a list of eligible Open Select journals.

UNBC Library has signed a license with Wiley (2025-2026) to offer Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN)-affiliated authors uncapped, no-cost Open Access publishing in all hybrid Wiley journals and a 10% discount on Gold (native) OA journals. (see Wiley Hybrid Journal title list at the bottom of this page)  APC discount is applied upon submission of manuscript . Authors must identify their institutional affiliation in order to qualify for the discount.  Please review the step-by-step guide to open access publishing for authors.  A list of eligible hybrid journals is available for download here.