The American Chemical Society Publications (ACS) is a publishing house based in the USA whose publishing portfolio currently includes 16 genuine open access journals.

The publication process for authors:

• As a "corresponding author", you submit your article to ACS Paragon Plus, stating your affiliation. During the submission process, FU authors are directed to the Journal Publishing Agreement (JPA) tool.
• A verification request is then forwarded to the Freie Universität Berlin.
• If the author selects the option "No, I do not want to publish Open Access" during the JPA process, ACS will ask again. It is then still possible to correct the decision.
• Open Access publication is completely free of charge for FU-affiliated authors.

  Further information:
  ACS Publications

Freie Universität Berlin participates in a consortium agreement for AIP Journals together with other academic institutions. The so-called Read and Publish Model 2024-2026 allows corresponding authors affiliated with the Freie Universität Berlin to publish their articles in the AIP Publishing subscription journals Open Access, i.e. under an Open Access license (CC-BY) without any additional fees. In the author dashboard, "I wish to publish Open Access as part of an institutional agreement" must be selected under Publication Charges and Funding. Once the article has been accepted for publication, the Freie Universität Berlin will receive confirmation that the costs have been covered. The following step-by-step guide explains the publication process.

Freie Universität Berlin has concluded a Read and Publish Transformative Agreement with ACM (ACM Open). It combines reading access to all subscription-based ACM contents with the possibility to publish open access in journals and proceedings of ACM without additional costs if the member of Freie Universität is corresponding author. Please submit your contributions using your FU e-mail address and specify Freie Universität Berlin as your primary affiliation so that the ACM system displays the OA option for you.

It is recommended that the „default Creative Commons License CC BY (non-exclusive permission to publish)is selected in the „eRights form“. With this agreement all rights to the publication remain with the authors, and it allows usage of the contribution under a free license.

• List of all journals and proceedings included in the agreement.

Freie Universität Berlin has concluded a Publish & Read agreement with the Dutch academic publisher Brill, which gives members of Freie Universität Berlin read access to the entire Brill journal portfolio (approx. 350 journal titles) for the first time.
In addition, affiliated authors of Freie Universität can publish open access articles in these journals at no additional cost, thereby increasing the visibility of their research achievements.

A full overview of Brill’s journals can be found here.

• Select ‘Open Access’ when submitting your article via Editorial Manager.
• Select ‘Apply Discount’, fill out your affiliation details, and benefit from a 100% discount on the APC.
• Once accepted, your article will appear in Open Access automatically.

Freie Universität participates in the Read & Publish model of Cambridge University Press (CUP) whereby the FU authors have the possibility to publish their articles open access free of charge in the subscription journals. The following step-by-step guide explains the publication process. Please note that your faculty will issue the invoice.

Publishing in hybrid journals: With the so-called "Read and Publish License" Corresponding Authors have the possibility to publish their articles open access in subscription-based journals. Publication in the publisher's Open Access-only journals is also possible under this agreement.

If you are a "corresponding author" or "submitting author", please submit your article, as usual, directly to the respective journal. During the submission process, please fill in the submission form provided by the publisher.

• Upon acceptance of the article, "Corresponding Author" receives a message from Rightslink with the publication fee (“Article-processing charge (APC)”). After logging in on the Rightslink website the Freie Universität Berlin must be selected as an institution unter “Affiliation discount”, so that the publication fee is set to zero in the system and authors of the publication do not face charges.

• Additionally to the publication in the respective CUP journal, the article will also be made available through the institutional repository Refubium.

Please refer to the following publisher information for further details.

• “Open Access Publishing Workflow for Cambridge Journals”

Cogitatio Press is a Portuguese open access publisher currently publishing five journals in social sciences. All journals are indexed in DOAJ and are published under the CC-BY license.

Do you want to publish in Cogitatio Press?

• Please select the journal (Media and Communication | Ocean and Society | Politics and Governance | Social Inclusion | Urban Planning).
• Submit your manuscript via the website (Login) of the journal.
• Payment for APCs is regulated by the framework agreement that Freie Universität Berlin has concluded with Cogitatio Press. There are no costs involved.

The Publish & Read agreement between Freie Universität Berlin and The Company of Biologists offers members of Freie Universität Berlin read access and the opportunity to publish their manuscripts as Open Access research articles free of charge in all of the publisher's journals. The publisher offers a detailed guide for authors and a extensive FAQ on its website.

Copernicus Publications is a publisher of scientific literature in fields of Geo- and Earth system sciences (natural sciences, engineering sciences, life sciences). Any usage rights are regulated through the Creative Commons License (CC-BY 4.0).

You want to publish in Copernicus Publications?

• First you have to register via the website.
• Each journal has its own web presence. There you find all important information about the submitting process.
• Article Processing Charges (APCs) are either fixed per journal or calculated based on the number of published pages of the submitted manuscript. The respective APCs can be found in the publisher's list and are financed up to an amount of 2,000 EUR net (i.e. excl. VAT) by the University Library of the FU Berlin.
• Invoices up to an APC amount of 2,000 EUR net (i.e. excl. VAT) will be sent directly to the University Library of Freie Universität Berlin. Please note, if the invoice amount is above 2,000 EUR (net excl. VAT), the invoice will not be centrally financed via the University Library. In these cases, you will receive the invoice directly from the publisher and must finance it.
• Included in the membership are research articles, review articles, technical notes, and corrigenda.

Freie Universität Berlin is participating in the consortium agreement with De Gruyter for the subjects Humanities & Social Sciences and Economics.

Hybrid Open Access:
Members of Freie Universität Berlin can publish Open Access free of charge as corresponding author in hybrid journals from the following subjects:

• Humanities & Social Sciences (Konvolut A and B)
• Economics

If you want to make sure that a specific journal is covered by the contract, please use this journal list.

Gold Open Access:
As corresponding author, members of Freie Universität Berlin receive a 20% discount on publication costs in all genuine De Gruyter Open Access journals.

The transformative Open Access contract with the scientific publisher Elsevier is the third contract concluded by the DEAL consortium. The contract is of central importance for the German scientific landscape and the free availability of its research results.

Open Access Publishing
Corresponding authors of Freie Universität Berlin can publish in open access in more than 2,500 Elsevier journals, including the journals of the Cell Press and The Lancet brands. The contract is valid for submissions from 2024 onwards. If you want to make sure that a specific journal is covered by the contract, use the DEAL journal list (Elsevier).

Under the DEAL contract with Elsevier, the FU Berlin receives permanent access rights to almost the entire Elsevier journal portfolio, including the Cell Press and The Lancet range of titles.

Further information can be found under DEAL Consortium.

• Submission and editorial acceptance: "Corresponding Authors" receive an invitation from Elsevier to complete the publication process for the submitted article.
• Author identification: "Corresponding Authors" confirm their FU affiliation. If possible, please always include your institutional email address throughout the publication process.
• Verification: The identified item will be sent to the University Library for final eligibility verification.
• Publication: Once your affiliation has been confirmed by us, the article will be published Open Access. The OA Funding Note ("Acknowledgement") will be added to the article.
• Cost coverage: Invoice processing through the University Library.

If the manuscript has been rejected by FU Berlin as ineligible, you will be informed and you will be asked to proceed with the payment options. An manuscript may be rejected by us based on the article type or affiliation. You can then either raise the costs for the article elsewhere or, if publishing in a hybrid journal, publish your article free of charge in Closed Access and subsequently achieve Green Open Access.

In November 2023, Freie Universität Berlin concluded a license agreement with the European Mathematical Society - EMS- Publishing House GmbH, which allows FU-affiliated scientists to publish free of charge in all EMS journals.

Further information
https://ems.press/subscribe-to-open
https://ems.press/updates/2022-02-22-s2o-threshold-formulation

Frontiers Media S.A. is an open access publisher of scientific articles in fields ranging from biomedicine and physics or engineering to arts humanities.

New up to 01.01.2023: The institutional membership with Frontiers ended on 31.12.2022. However, Open Access publication costs can still be financed by the Publication Fund of the Freie Universität Berlin, provided that all criteria for refunding are fulfilled. Once your article has been accepted for publication, you can submit one for direct payment.

The Freie Universität Berlin participates in the so-called Publish & Read agreement of the Lyell Collection. The Lyell Collection is an online collection consisting of the journal titles of the Geological Society of London, special publications, book series and journals published on behalf of other societies. FU-affiliated authors have the opportunity to publish Open Access free of charge in 6 journals. Exception: there are no publication opportunities in Geoenergy, Petroleum Geology Conference Series (and of course in the historical journals) paid for centrally by the University Library.

Further information:
The Geological Society of London

Information and instructions for the preparation and submission of articles can be found on the pages of the individual journals.

Freie Universität Berlin is participating in an open access transformation framework agreement for Hogrefe PsyJOURNALS. Members of Freie Universität can publish Open Access free of charge. As usual, you submit your article directly to the journal as “corresponding author” or “submitting author”. After acceptance, you will receive information about the choice between open access publication model and the traditional publication model. If you opt for the open access option, you will be assigned to membership via the email address of Freie Universität Berlin. You can find further information here.

Members of Freie Universität Berlin have the possibility to publish on an open access basis in the majority of IOP’s hybrid journals and open access journals. The cost of publication charges (APC) will be balanced against journal license fees paid by the Freie Universität Berlin. A list of all journals covered by this agreement can be found here (list A, B and D).

Step-by-Step Guide for Authors:

• Members of Freie Universität Berlin submit their manuscripts as corresponding author.
• Use your Freie Universität Berlin e-mail address during the submission process. The Attribution of the institutional affiliation takes place based on the author's e-mail address of Freie Universität Berlin.
• Confirm your FU affiliation via the provided submission form ("Freie Universität Berlin").
• During the submission process, the IOP automatically identifies the potentially eligible articles. After the manuscript have been accepted, the IOP asks the team of Dokumentenserver of the FU Berlin to check and confirm the FU affiliation.
• Publication charge (APC) is covered, any page charge or publication fees unrelated to open access are not included in our open access agreement.
• Alongside with the publication in the respective IOP journal, the article will be deposited in the University's institutional repository Refubium.
• A guide to submitting under a transformative agreement.

Further information:

• Publishing Support: IOP Science

John Benjamins Publishing Company is a small academic publishing company situated in Amsterdam. The publishing portfolio includes 88 journals from the fields of linguistics, translation studies and terminology, psychology, philosophy, literary studies, art and art history. Freie Universität Berlin has signed an agreement with John Benjamin that enables all FU members to publish open access in these journals at no additional cost. As usual, FU authors submit their article directly to the journal as "corresponding author" or "submitting author". The assignment to membership takes place via your e-mail address of Freie Universität Berlin. This eliminates the article fees.

The University Library of Freie Universität Berlin participates in a Publish & Read agreement with Karger.
FU scientists have access to the entire portfolio of Karger's medical journals. At the same time, unlimited Open Access publishing is made possible in both Gold Open Access and our hybrid journals.

Karger Gold Open Access
Corresponding authors at Freie Universität Berlin receive a 15% discount on the publication fees for all articles submitted to Karger Gold Open Access journals. You are "corresponding author" or "submitting author" and submit your article directly to the journal as usual. Reference your affiliation with Freie Universität Berlin during the submission process. If the article fulfills the conditions for funding, you can submit an application for refunding of publication costs after the article has been accepted by the publisher. Membership of Freie Universität Berlin grants the above-mentioned discount on article fees.

Karger Hybrid Open Access
With the Publish & Read agreement corresponding authors affiliated with the FU can publish their articles in hybrid Karger journals without any additional fees.

Guide to the publishing process
Journals A-Z | Karger Publishing House

Further information:

Open Access publishing
Open Access

MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) is a publisher of around 400 peer-reviewed, scientific open access journals listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). You can find a current list of these journals here.

Freie Universität Berlin has been participating in a consortium agreement with MDPI since April 1, 2025, which enables all members of Freie Universität Berlin to publish in the publisher's DOAJ-listed journals at a discount. For FU-affiliated authors, a discount of 15 % is generally granted, in the case of central funding even 30 % on the Article Processing Charges (APC) incurred. Funding condition: The APC must not exceed EUR 2.000.

Do you want to publish in MDPI?

• You are “corresponding author” or “submitting author” and submit your article directly to the journal as usual.
• Please indicate your affiliation with Freie Universität Berlin in the submission process and also as an affiliation in the manuscript. In addition, you should always provide your Freie Universität Berlin e-mail address throughout the publication process.
• If the journal in which you wish to publish is currently listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), you can submit an application to cover your publication costs using this web-form.
• Please note that the total amount for a central funding of the APC per article may not exceed EUR 2.000 (plus VAT).
• Helpful information on the individual current APCs can be found on the MDPI website under Article Processing Charges Information.

The US publisher Public Library of Science (PLOS) publishes pure Open Access journals in the natural and life sciences and related disciplines. The Open Access framework agreement that Freie Universität Berlin has concluded with PLOS includes free publishing for FU authors in all PLOS journals.

Are you a corresponding author and would like to publish in PLOS ?

• Please follow the author instructions
• While submitting your manuscript, please indicate Freie Universität Berlin
  as your institution/affiliation (see screenshot and further information here).
• The billing (invoice) goes directly to Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) publishes current contributions from international researchers in the fields of biology, physics and social sciences. PNAS publishes more than 3,500 research papers annually, which appear daily online (PNAS Early Edition4) and in weekly issues. All articles published in PNAS carry the seal of approval of an Academy member.

All articles published in PNAS are freely available online via PNAS and PubMed Central (PMC) after a six-month grace period.
Due to the participation of Freie Universität Berlin in a national consortium agreement, a discount of $500 is granted for the Immediate OA option ($4.975 instead of $5.475 for research articles up to 12 pages) for FU affiliated authors. Immediate OA is published under a CC BY license as standard.
The price for a standard publication ("Delayed Open Access") is $ 2.575.
There is no additional refunding from the publication fund of Freie Universität Berlin.

important note: Due to a temporary difficulty in the assignment of the institution on the part of PNAS, please contact PNASSubsDept@nas.edu directly after submitting your manuscript in order to receive the APC discount and thus a corrected invoice.

The so-called RSC Platinum model enables FU affiliated corresponding authors to publish in all Gold Open-Access and hybrid journals of the Royal Society of Chemistry without paying APCs (including newly published journals)
Read and perpetual access rights are also granted to the paid-for content of RSC journals published during the contract period.
The submission process in brief:

• FU-affiliated authors identify themselves via their email address.
• Upon acceptance of the manuscript, you will receive an email with a link to the licensing system.
• The link leads to a page with the details of the manuscript that were entered during submission.
• The authors click on Start now. The licensing system automatically recognizes the affiliation with Freie Universität Berlin based on the email address. see also your guide.

All publications are published as Open Access articles under a Creative Commons attribution license immediately upon first publication. The CC-BY license is preselected as the only Open Access license, unless it is explicitly requested and communicated to the RSC to show the CC-BY-NC license option in the licensing process for the eligible authors.Please note the recent journal list.

SAGE Gold Open Access
"Corresponding Authors" at Freie Universität Berlin receive a 20% discount on the publication fees for all articles submitted in SAGE Gold Open Access journals. This option is made possible by the participation of Freie Universität Berlin in a national consortium for a Sage magazine package. The agreement does not include central accounting via Freie Universität Berlin.

• You are a "corresponding author" or "submitting author" and submit your article directly to the journal as usual. Refer to your affiliation with Freie Universität Berlin during the submission process.
• If the article fulfills the conditions for funding, you can submit an application for refunding of publication costs after the article has been accepted by the publisher.
• Membership of Freie Universität Berlin grants the above-mentioned discount on article fees.

SAGE Choice (hybrid open access):
The open access publication fees for articles by "Corresponding Authors" of Freie Universität Berlin in hybrid journals from SAGE (SAGE Choice), however, are completely covered by the institutional agreement. There is no reimbursement or savings associated with renouncing the Open Access offer. Offer applies to manuscripts submitted to Sage between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025.

Please find further information here.

"Corresponding Authors" of Freie Universität Berlin can publish Open Access in Springer Nature journals without individual invoicing. Any Open Access publication fees (Article Processing Charges, APCs) will be paid centrally by the University Library, even if they exceed € 2000 net. Please note that further publication charges (e.g. charges for overlength, color illustrations) may apply which are not centrally funded.

With few exceptions, Open Access rights apply to the publisher's entire journal portfolios in all disciplines, including purely Open Access journals. If you want to be sure that a specific journal is covered by the contract, use the DEAL journal list.

Publishing under the Open Access Transformative Agreement for Nature journals is possible again:
In addition to the journals in the DEAL journal list, all "primary research articles" in Nature and Nature research journals are funded. The following journals are covered:
journal list (Nature and Nature research)

• Submission and editorial acceptance: "Corresponding Authors" receive an invitation from Springer to complete the publication process for the submitted article.
• Author identification: "Corresponding Authors" confirm their FU affiliation. If possible, please always include your institutional email address throughout the publication process.
• Verification: The identified item will be sent to the University Library for final eligibility verification.
• Publication: Once your affiliation has been confirmed by us, the article will be published Open Access. The OA Funding Note ("Acknowledgement") will be added to the article.
• Cost coverage: Invoice processing through the University Library.

If the manuscript has been rejected by FU Berlin as ineligible, you will be informed and you will be asked to proceed with the payment options. An manuscript may be rejected by us based on the article type or affiliation. You can then either raise the costs for the article elsewhere or, if publishing in a hybrid journal, publish your article free of charge in Closed Access and subsequently achieve Green Open Access.

During the submission process in hybrid journals, you can deselect the Open Access option ("Opt out"). However, in accordance with the Open Access Policy of Freie Universität Berlin, we recommend that you always use the Open Access option within DEAL. During the submission process, confirm the Open Access option offered by the publisher ("Open Choice"). You can usually choose between different Creative Commons licenses. We recommend using the CC-BY license.

Background:

Building on the success of the current agreement between the publisher Springer Nature and Project DEAL, the new 2024-2028 contract secures OA publishing in Springer Nature's Open Access and hybrid Springer, Palgrave and Adis journals as well as fully OA Nature titles and BMC journals.
Scientists at DEAL institutions receive comprehensive access to Springer Nature's journal portfolio. On the other hand, the "Corresponding Authors" contract with FU affiliation enables OA publishing of "Original Papers", "Review Papers" and "Brief Communications" in almost all journals of the publisher. This means that the contract applies to subscription journals, subscription journals with OA option (so-called hybrid journals) and OA journals of the publisher.
While the publication fees for journal articles can only increase by up to 3.5% per year over the contractual term of the DEAL journals from Springer Nature, in the case of the Nature portfolio journals there will be a contractually agreed annual price increase of 12.5% in the publication fees for journal articles.

More helpful links:

• Information about the DEAL agreement with Springer Nature

• Author Helpdesk

The publishing agreement with Taylor & Francis offers you two different publication options:

a.) Open Select (hybrid):

• You are a "corresponding author" or "submitting author" and submit your article directly to the journal as usual. During the submission process, you will already be informed by the publisher about the possibility of an Open Access publication.
• The university library will receive information about your submission from Taylor & Francis and will contact you to clarify whether you would like to accept the OA option.
• As soon as we receive your acceptance, the hybrid publication of your article will be requested from the publisher.
• The fees per article will be reduced by 100%. This means that there are no costs for you for publication of an open access article in hybrid journals.

b.) Fully Open Access Journals:

• The article processing charges are reduced by 10% per article and paid directly by the University Library of the Freie Universität Berlin.
• There are no additional fees to pay for researchers of Freie Universität Berlin.

"Corresponding Authors" of the FU can publish open access in journals of Wiley without individual invoicing. Any open access publication fees (Article Processing Charges, APCs) will be paid centrally by the University Library, even if they exceed 2000,- € net. Please note that further publication fees (e.g. fees for overlength, color illustrations) may apply that are not centrally funded.

With few exceptions, open access rights apply to the publisher's entire journal portfolios in all disciplines, including open access-only journals. If you want to be sure that a particular journal is covered by the contract, use the DEAL journal list (Wiley).

Overview of the OnlineOpen-Workflow

• Submission and editorial acceptance: "Corresponding Authors" submit their articles directly to the journal as usual. Please indicate your affiliation with Freie Universität Berlin during the submission process and also as an affiliation in the manuscript. When asked who pays the publication fee, you should select the following option: "My institution or funder has an agreement with Wiley and may pay the article publication charge".
• Selection of the CC license: You can choose between different Creative Commons licenses. We recommend using the CC-BY license.
• Verification: The identified article will be sent to the University Library for final eligibility verification.
• Publication: Once your affiliation has been confirmed, the article will be published Open Access. The OA Funding Note ("Acknowledgement") will be added to the article.
• Cost coverage: Invoice processing through the University Library.

During the submission process to OnlineOpen journals, you can deselect the Open Access option ("Opt out"). However, in accordance with the Open Access Policy of Freie Universität Berlin, we recommend that you always use the Open Access option within DEAL.

• Submission and editorial acceptance: "Corresponding Authors" submit their articles directly to the journal as usual. When submitting, please enter the following institution code of Freie Universität Berlin in the Wiley web form: D211
• Discount: Under the DEAL contract, FU members are granted a 20% discount on the publication fees.
• Selection of the CC license: You can choose between different Creative Commons licenses. We recommend using the CC-BY license.
• Verification: The identified article will be sent to the University Library for final eligibility verification.
• Publication: Once your affiliation has been confirmed, the article will be published Open Access. The OA Funding Note ("Acknowledgement") will be added to the article.
• Cost coverage: Invoice processing through the University Library.

If the manuscript has been rejected by FU Berlin as ineligible, you will be informed and asked to proceed with the payment options. An manuscript may be rejected by us based on the item type or affiliation. You can then either raise the costs for the article elsewhere or, if published in a hybrid journal, publish your article free of charge in Closed Access.

Background:
For the period 2024-2028, a contract has been concluded between the publisher Wiley and Project DEAL based on the read-and-publish model. Scientists at the DEAL institutions receive comprehensive access to Wiley's journal portfolio. On the other hand, the "Corresponding Authors" contract with FU affiliation enables open access publishing of "primary research articles" and "review articles" in almost all of the publisher's journals. This means that the contract applies to subscription journals, subscription journals with an open access option (so-called hybrid journals) and open access journals of the publisher.

More helpful links:

• Open access agreement for authors at eligible German institutions

• Journal Finder

• Submitting with Editorial Manager