Open Access
Transformative Agreements
Support for the Open Access transformation, i.e. a change from a traditional subscription-based journal model to a publication-based journal model, has increased in recent years. The implementation and conditions often vary widely, ranging from the open access status of a publisher‘s entire portfolio to discounts of the publication fees in journals that are already entirely Open Access.
Overview
Overview of different types
Projekt DEAL - Wiley
The MLU has been participating in the Project DEAL – Wiley since mid-2019. More information about the contract, conditions and the journal portfolio can be found here.
If you would like to publish an article in open access and in accordance with Wiley publishing company based on the DEAL contract, please follow the steps below:
After the article has been accepted for publication, please go to www.wileyauthors.com and log into your publication management. In the dashboard, at “Author Services”, please select “Select OnlineOpen”.
- At the menu option “Select Institution” please select the option “Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg” (Ringgold 9176).
Afterwards the information about the received funding will be entered automatically.
When selecting “Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg” as the institution, the following message should now appear below the “Select OnlineOpen” selection:
“Yes, I would like to make my article OnlineOpen.”
The University and State Library will then receive a request in its administration tool and verify this request. After verification, the request will either be confirmed or rejected. If there is any doubt on our sides, you will be contacted using the e-mail address you have given during submission. If the request is accepted, your work should be made Open Access immediately after publication with no further costs to you as the author. Please check and contact erwerbung@bibliothek.uni-halle.de if you have any further questions or problems regarding this matter. If your request is rejected, there is also the possibility to publish the article directly in Open Access by paying the Open Access costs yourself. If not selected, the article will be published as a subscription article.
Please note that the DEAL contract with Wiley only provides an authorization for “Primary Research Article” and “Review Article”. Other article types, for example “Letter to the Editor“, cannot be published Open Access cost–neutrally within the DEAL contract.
A list of current journals in the Wiley-DEAL contract can be found here (.xlsx file).
Project DEAL - Springer Nature
The MLU has been participating in the Project DEAL – Springer Nature since mid-2019. More information about the contract, conditions and the journal portfolio can be found here and on the pages of the Springer Nature publishing house.
If you would like to publish an article in Open Access with Springer–Nature publishing company on the basis of the DEAL contract, please follow the steps below:
After the article has been accepted for publication, the institution “Martin–Luther–Universität Halle–Wittenberg“ (Ringgold 9176) has to be selected. This is also automatically recognized if you use a university e-mail address as “Corresponding Author” or the submission is made from the IP area of the university.
As a next step, you have to confirm that you wish to publish your article in open access. This will then take place within the scope of your authorization as author pertaining to the MLU at no cost to you.
The University and State Library will receive a request via its administration tool and will verify this request. After verification, your request will either be confirmed or rejected. If there is any doubt on our side, you will be contacted via the e-mail address given during the submission process. If the request is accepted, your work should be made Open Access immediately after publication with no further costs for you as author. Please check and contact erwerbung@bibliothek.uni-halle.de if you have any further questions or concerns regarding this matter. Should your request, however, be rejected, you still can publish the article directly in Open Access by paying the Open Access costs yourself. If not selected, the article will be published as a subscription article.
Please note that the DEAL contract with Springer Nature only provides an authorization for some article types, such as “Original Paper“, “Review Paper“, “Brief Communication“, “Editorial Notes“, “Book Reviews“, “Letters“ and “Reports“. Other article types cannot be published Open Access cost-neutrally within the DEAL contract.
A list of current journals of the Springer Nature–DEAL contract can be found here..
Project DEAL - Elsevier
ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
Under the contract with ACM, members of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg can publish Open Access in ACM journals and conference proceedings free of charge and without restriction. The following article types are included: Research Articles, Review Articles, and Conference or Proceeding Papers.
Please use your university e-mail address when submitting.
An overview of eligible titles can be found here.
ACM provides an information page as well as detailed information on the submission workflow (PDF).
ACS (American Chemical Society)
MLU has concluded a transformation agreement with the American Chemical Society (ACS) for 2024-2026.
In addition to read access to the journals of the ACS publishing house, the agreement offers MLU members the opportunity to publish Open Access in ACS journals at no cost.
The agreement complements the range of open access publishing options for MLU.
By selecting Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in your profile, the ACS submission system automatically recognizes that your article is eligible for Open Access under the agreement.
If an article is accepted, you will be asked to sign the contract by e-mail. After logging in to ACS, “Order Open Access” takes you to an external site – the service provider CCC, which requires a separate login.
In the CCC portal, you complete the process by agreeing to open access publication under the Creative Commons license CC BY.
Further information from the provider can be found here.
APS (American Physical Society)
Under the contract with APS, members of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg can publish open access as corresponding authors free of charge in the publisher’s hybrid journals. Further information can be found at: https://journals.aps.org/authors/institutional-open-access-agreements-tib
APCs are charged separately for publications in Gold Open Access journals. Eligible authors can apply for funding via the Publication Fund.
There is reading access to all 17 journals of the publisher (https://www.aps.org/publications/journals)
DeGruyter – Open Access Transformative Agreement
MLU supports the open access project Millennium Studies – Open access book series transformation project for the ancient studies. The project comprises open access publications of the series "Millenium-Studien", which is published by De Gruyter. This has already resulted in the publication of 86 ancient studies monographs.
MLU supports: Geschichte 2025, Deutsche Literaturwissenschaft 2025 and Germanistische Linguistik
Cambridge University Press
The ULB is currently participating in the Read & Publish contract of the publisher CUP. Authors with a staff affiliation of the MLU are able to publish in more than 300 hybrid and about 40 gold open access journals free of charge.
The following article types are supported: Research Articles, Review Articles, Rapid Communications, Brief Reports and Case Reports.
Furthermore, by this contract, the MLU has reading access to the publisher’s journal portfolio with around 400 journals in the humanities and social sciences, in natural sciences, life sciences and engineering.
More information can be found here.
Duncker & Humblot
MLU supports the Open-Access Initiative Duncker & Humblot Open Law
Depending on the amount of funding, monographs from the following series are published open access here:
Schriften zum Öffentlichen Recht (SÖR)
Frontiers S.A.
Authors with a staff affiliation of the MLU currently receive a 10 % discount on the APC fee. Please submit a corresponding application via the publication fund.
Geological Society of London (GSL) – Lyell Collection
Under the agreement, members of MLU can publish Open Access as corresponding authors in 6 hybrid journals and 3 hybrid book series free of charge.
The following journals are involved:
- Journal of the Geological Society
- Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology & Hydrogeology
- Petroleum Geoscience
- Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis
- Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society
- Scottish Journal of Geology
- in the Special Publications, the Memoirs and the Engineering Geology Special Publications
Hogrefe PsyJournals
Within the contract with Hogrefe, members of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg can publish Open Access free of charge in 29 of the publisher’s transformative journals. If you publish in one of the 3 Gold Open Access journals, you will receive a 25% discount on the APC.
Furthermore, you have reading access to over 40 titles of the PsyJOURNALS.
Detailed information can be found here.
KOALA
MLU supporte the bundle „Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie 2025-2027“:
- Berliner Blätter (Beteiligung MLU an Editorial Board)
- Ethnoscripts – Zeitschrift für aktuelle ethnologische Studien
- Curare.Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie
- Hamburger Journal für Kulturanthropologie
- Zeitschrift für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft
- Kulturanthropologie Notizen
MLU supports the Open Access consortium of 4 social science journals:
Open Library of Humanities
Supports journals in the humanities through crowdfunding so that there are no author-based publication fees.
More information can be found here.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
Due to the existing license agreement, authors with a staff affiliation of the MLU receive a 20% discount on the publication fees.
However, these are not eligible for funding via our publication fund, as this is a hybrid journal.
More information can be found here.
MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)
Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg has joined the Gold Open Access Agreement with MDPI negotiated by ZB MED.
From 2025, corresponding authors from MLU will receive 30% of the APC. Prerequisite is the indication of MLU as affiliation. Central billing takes place via the library.
Detailed information can be found here.
RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry)
As part of the “RSC Platinum” program 2024-2027, members of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg who act as corresponding authors can publish open access in both hybrid and gold open access journals at no cost.
A list of the journals concerned can be found here.
Taylor & Francis
MLU has joined the Publish-and-Read agreement with the academic publisher
Taylor & Francis and thus enables all university members to publish Open Access in the Open Select Journals of Taylor & Francis free of charge.
In addition, publishing in Taylor & Francis’ Open Access journals (golden road to Open Access publishing) is possible at discounted prices. The costs can be covered up to EUR 2000 via the MLU Publication Fund.
Furthermore, we initially offer read-only access to the journal portfolio of the Collection Social & Humanities Sciences with approx. 1500 journals until the end of 2024
All titles of the Collection SSH can be found in the Electronic Journals Library (EZB) and in the library catalog.
In addition to the DEAL agreements, this transformation agreement represents another important step on the path from subscription to publication funding for open access articles.
IOP Publishing
Corresponding authors can now publish in journals of the publisher IOP Publishing under the following conditions:
Hybrid Open Access
You can publish in the following hybrid IOP journals. Corresponding authors from MLU have the opportunity, through the “Read & Publish Agreement with IOP”, to publish their research articles in subscription-based journals as Open Access at no additional cost.
For articles published under this agreement, the authorship will be charged additional “publication fees.” Page charges cannot be covered by the Open Access Publication Fund and must instead be paid by the department itself. Details on the “page charges” are provided on the website and in the submission form of the respective journal.
Gold Open Access
You can publish in the following Gold Open Access journals at IOP.
Eligible publication types are: primary research articles, research papers, special issue articles, letters, review articles.
The publication process for authors
- IOPP identifies all eligible articles of corresponding authors from MLU based on the stated institutional affiliation. These authors receive relevant information during the peer review process.
- If your article is not eligible, IOP will inform you.
- All eligible articles will be published under the Creative Commons License (CC BY).
Please note: The library does not cover any costs of “page charges” in IOP journals!
Nature-Journals (Springer Nature Transformative Agreements)
The MLU participates in the nationwide Springer Nature Transformative Agreement. From now on, you have access to the entire Nature journal portfolio.
Corresponding authors of MLU can publish their research articles free of charge—up to the article quota set for the consortium—in Nature and in the hybrid Nature-branded research journals under a CC BY license. Publishing Open Access is currently possible at no cost in the following original Nature Research titles: Journal list.
Further information from Springer Nature can be found here.
If you have questions about publishing, please contact: publikationsfonds@bibliothek.uni-halle.de or reach out to your responsible subject librarian.