What’s the news, and Why Does It Matter?

With publication volumes rising while prepaid quotas stay fixed under national agreements, Maastricht University and MUMC+ authors keep running into “caps”, and on balance, it looks like this will keep happening earlier in the year as more researchers become aware of, and use, these discount deals.

The key publisher status for 2026 (updated 20.08.2026) is:

Status Publishers with a publishing discount quota Estimated Cap Reached (2026)
  Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) Expected first week of October
  Springer Expected last week of September
  Taylor & Francis Expected mid-November
  Oxford University Press (OUP) Expected mid-September
  American Chemical Society (ACS) No cap expected in 2026
  Emerald Expected last week of September
  Cambridge University Press No cap expected in 2026

 

Several of our other deals, ACM, BMC, BMJ, De Gruyter Brill, Elsevier, PLOS, Portland Press, The Royal Society, SAGE, and SCOAP³ among them, currently carry no cap for 2026, so they aren’t part of this alert.

Once we reach a cap on any of the listed agreements, institutional coverage for APCs through that route stops for the rest of the calendar year. Unless you have alternative funding or choose a different OA route, you’ll become responsible for the charges yourself.

What should you do? (Hybrid vs fully OA journals)

Your options depend on the type of journal you’ve selected. This is why we keep urging researchers to consider open-access coverage before submitting, not after acceptance.

Hybrid journals (subscription journals where open access is optional). After a cap is reached, you can:

  • Publish under a subscription (closed) licence at no extra cost. The article goes behind the paywall, but you can still share your Author Accepted Manuscript via green open access. And, after a six-month embargo, the final published version too, via the Taverne Amendment. The library can do this for you; see “You share, we take care.”
  • Alternatively, if you need immediate open access with a publisher’s licence (typically CC BY) beyond the cap, you (your project/department) will need to cover the APC yourselves.

Fully Open Access (OA) journals (no subscription option): 

  • Open access is the default and always requires an APC where applicable.
  • After the cap, the corresponding author is responsible for the APC: check whether your funder, department, or another budget can help.

If your funder requires immediate open access under a Creative Commons licence (e.g., Plan S, ERC grants):

  • The green Taverne route is not compliant. It carries a six-month embargo and typically no CC licence.
  • To stay compliant, you’ll need immediate CC-licensed OA, meaning you must cover the APC, retain usage rights, or secure alternative funding support.

 

How APC coverage generally works

Before anything else: it is the corresponding author’s responsibility to publish on behalf of all co-authors, including choosing the publisher/journal, selecting a licence, signing the licence-to-publish (the contract with the publisher), and handling any invoice. Publishing costs are research costs, and the university holds no central budget to pay APC invoices. So discuss your journal choices and potential costs before you submit a manuscript.

There are, broadly, three routes to cover an APC:

  1. Via your research funder. If the publication results from publicly funded research, the project budget is usually the first port of call. Most funders require immediate CC-licensed open access and fund this through the grant, so you shouldn’t need to draw on university funds. Coordinate with your project leader or budget manager, and confirm the journal is accepted for funder coverage.
  2. Via your research institution. If there’s no external funding and a library discount deal (see below) doesn’t apply or has hit its cap, the corresponding author receives the invoice and arranges payment through the research group, faculty, or another internal budget. Discuss this with a budget holder before submission to avoid delays or payment disputes later.
  3. Via the University Library’s discount deals. The library prepays APC discounts with a range of publishers, mostly for hybrid journals. Depending on the agreement, this can cover up to 100% of the APC. This is provided the budget for the publisher of choice remains and the requirements are met. This is precisely where the caps discussed above come in: always check whether a cap applies to your chosen title before you get your hopes up.

Always check the Open Access Journal Browser first. If your target title is covered, follow the submission procedure listed there to receive the discount at checkout. And double-check at that final pre-publication step that the discount has actually been applied; this doesn’t always happen automatically.

For the full, continuously updated overview of publisher deals and conditions, see Open Access publishing deals & APC discounts. For general guidance, visit the Publishing & Open Access portal.

Want timely updates?

Missing a quota can mean an unexpected invoice, limited dissemination options, or – for funder-mandated OA – a compliance problem. Our APC discount deals lower the financial barrier to open access, but only while the quota lasts. Knowing your options in advance can save you money, time, and a fair amount of hassle.

Think strategically. Act early. Stay open. And when you’re expecting to publish an article in 2026, check your journal’s cap status today.

Questions or Concerns?

Contact the library’s Open Access support team using Ask Your Librarian for prompt help with a concrete question. General feedback is always welcome at openaccess@maastrichtuniversity.nl.