Publishing and Open access
Open access publishing means that research results are published in such a way that they are freely accessible online. Research funders increasingly requires that research results be published so that they are freely available. Lund University has a policy on publishing, where researchers are encouraged to publish open access as much as possible in order to increase research visibility, use and impact. Researchers are expected (though not obliged) to deposit a copy of their publications in LUCRIS. This page contain information and links you might need for the process.
Support for publication fees and publisher agreements
The university has publisher agreements with the major publishers of academic journals. The agreements are paying for the whole, or a part, of the author fees in subscription-based and open access journals. However, certain requirements have to be met.
Publishing agreements and discounts on Lund University library’s website
Researchers at Lund University can apply for funding of the APC in pure open access journals when the journal is not covered by any of the publisher agreements. The whole amount is paid by the University Library. Parts of the cost for the publishing are allocated afterwards and invoiced to the faculties.
Read more and apply for financial support for publication fees on Lund University library’s website
To find out if a journal is included in the current publisher agreements you can use the university’s search service where all journal titles are listed.
Search for journals included in current publisher agreements in Lund University's search engine
Open access fees for books and book chapters can be financed through the Lund University book fund.
Self-archiving
Self-archiving means that a copy of a published work is uploaded in full text in an open archive. The most common requirement from publishers for making research results publicly available are met by a full-text publication of the reviewed, accepted version of an article. Check the publisher's terms and conditions before you self-archive an article. Some publishers may, for example, require an embargo before a version can be made available. It is also common that only the so-called post-print version may be used.
You can search for a journal in the Sherpa Romeo database to see what applies to your article. The information is often available on the publishers website as well. This database contain publishers' conditions for open access archiving on a journal-by-journal basis.
As a researcher at Lund University, you can use LUCRIS to self-archive an article by uploading a full-text version. When registering a publication in LUCRIS, you upload the version that is permitted under the publisher's terms as a PDF file under "Electronic version (s) of this work". Enter which version of the article this copy is under "Document Version".
Before submitting your article for publishing
Before submitting your article, it is always a good idea to check the quality of the journal.
Although most publishers and journals are of good quality, there are also exceptions of unserious actors. It can be difficult to keep track of which journals or publishers might be dubious, but there are different ways that you can make a quality check of a journal or publisher.
The website "Think Check Submit" contains a good overview of what to consider before submitting an article or a book/book chapter. The website aims to help researchers identify trusted journals and publishers for their research.
Visit the Think, Check, Submit website
You can find more useful information on this topic on the University library’s website:
If you have questions, or for help in assessing a journal or publisher, please feel free to contact us at the LUSEM library or the department of scholarly publication at the University library.