About handling Article Processing Costs (APC)
When you select a journal for your publication outside our discount deals, you must settle the APC, if applicable and other publishing costs through your research project or faculty.
At Maastricht University, we treat publishing costs as research-related costs. For a corresponding/submitting author, the research project (leader) or the faculty is the point of contact for approval of costs, including APCs and processing of invoices.
If your publication results from publicly funded research (NWO, Horizon, etc.) APC coverage of publications in Gold OA journals is part of the research funding. Suppose APC coverage by the research group or the faculty is not an option, and the faculty has no faculty budget for research output. In that case, you might have to select another journal/publisher for your article. Or, if the selected journal is a hybrid journal, you can choose a subscription license (no APC, but not OA) and make your article (Green) Open Access after publication via the library.
The University Library supports Open Access publishing and tries to arrange APC discounts. However, there is no central publishing budget at UM or the library.
NB. The Open Access contracts that we conclude with publishers only concern APC discounts. Our deals do not cover regular publication costs, such as submission fees and page/colour charges. These costs are often offered as an option during publication and only relate to the print edition.
More information and suggestions
If you feel that essential information is missing in this FAQ or the information provided is incorrect, we would like to hear from you at openaccess@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
For specific or complex questions and support, please get in touch with an Open Access specialist at the University Library.
