ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL UniSZA ACADEMIC STAFF
Opportunity to Publish Open Access Articles with Springer Nature – NO APC Charges!
We are pleased to inform you that UniSZA, under the Transformative Agreement (TA) with Springer Nature, has been allocated a total of six (6) article slots per year for Open Access publication without incurring Article Processing Charges (APC).
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
- Up to 6 Open Access article slots per year (5 from UniSZA + 1 additional slot sponsored by the Ministry of Higher Education).
- Access to over 2,000 high-impact journals published by Springer, ADIS, Palgrave, and Academic Journals.
- Full-text access to journal content from 1997 to the present
b) Articles must have received “Acceptance” in Q1 or Q2 indexed journals.
c) The Main Author / Corresponding Author must be affiliated with UniSZA.
d) Successfully published articles under this agreement are not eligible for publication incentive claims.
e) Approval is granted on a First Come, First Serve basis, subject to available quotas.
- Article review and approval will be managed by designated Approval Managers from CREIM.
- Only one approval is permitted per article. If approved more than once, APC charges will apply accordingly.
- Only articles submitted to eligible hybrid journals listed under the TA agreement will qualify.
Check the list of eligible journals here:
https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-research/institutional-agreements
Under TA agreement and as authors from UniSZA, your journal articles can be published as Open Access (OA) articles whereby the Article Publication Cost (APCs) are covered by the University, subject to the terms of the funding agreement with Springer Nature and the University’s own criteria.
Below are the steps that you can refer to in order to submit your articles to the right Springer journals in order to qualify for this benefit.
Step 1: Understanding the basic terms of the Open Access funding agreement between KONSEPt and Springer Nature
The first step is to fully understand the eligibility of your institution as well as which type of journals is covered by this arrangement. You may do so by referring to the links below:
- https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/oa-agreements/malaysia
- https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/oa-agreements/malaysia/konsortium-sumber-elektronik-pendidikan-tinggi
Step 2: How to identify which eligible journals are part of this Open Access funding arrangement
Authors are encouraged to download a copy of the ‘Eligible Journals’ that is part of this arrangement by visiting the link >> https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/oa-agreements/malaysia/konsortium-sumber-elektronik-pendidikan-tinggi and scrolling to the bottom of the page where you will find a link to download the latest list of eligible journals. It is worth noting that only Hybrid journals are part of this funding arrangement.
Authors who wish to publish their articles in Fully Open Access journals can still do so but are subject to receiving individual invoices for the APCs and they will not be covered under this funding arrangement.
Step 3: Identifying the right journal to submit your article/manuscript.
Following Step #2, author are also encouraged to find more information on the homepages of each eligible journal on SpringerNature Link and nature.com to identify the which journals are suitable to submit to base on the subject/topic relevance, article type, audience/readership of your manuscripts. Via the home page authors will be able to identify:
- Aims & Scope of the Journal
- The Editorial Board
- Submission Guidelines
- Pre-submission checklist
- Publishing Options
- Journal Metrics
Sample screenshot of the homepage of the journal Acta Informatica.
Once authors have selected a suitable journal to submit to, they can proceed to submit their manuscripts to the chosen journal.
Step 4: Initial Acceptance/Rejected + Peer-Review
When a manuscript has been submitted to an eligible journal, the manuscript will go through the usual rigorous editorial process which includes the initial acceptance/rejection, peer-review, final acceptance and rejection. All of which are independent from the funding arrangement.
Step 5: Editorial Acceptance and Article Identification
Once an article has been editorially accepted. The corresponding author will be notified (via email) of the decision by the journal’s editor. From the same email, the author receive the invitation to complete the publication process for the article. Corresponding authors will be given the opportunity to identify themselves via 3 methods:
- Selection of Institution
- Institutional Email
- Location (IP Address)
Authors will then be notified that their articles are qualified to be published as an Open Access article under the Open Access funding agreement in this journal and they confirm they are agreeable to this. The manuscript is then submitted to the university for approval to cover the APC for the manuscript.
Step 6: Notice of approval/rejection for Open Access article publication funding
If the University has approved the author’s manuscript to be as an Open Access article and cover the APCs cost, the author will receive an email notification to complete and sign the OA creative commons license. At this stage, should there by other (non APC) cost associated with publishing in the selected journal, payment for these cost need to be made before proceeding with the final publication of the article.
If the article is rejected by the University to cover the APC cost, the author will be given 2 options moving forward.
Do note that rejection as this stage does not mean that the article is rejected editorially. Its status remains as editorially accepted and can be published.
- The author can either continue to still publish their articles as Open Access articles but will have to pay for the APCs directly or
- The author can opt to publish their articles as a ‘Closed’/’Subscription’ article without the need to pay for the APCs.
Step 7: Manuscript publication.
Articles that have been approved by the University will be published as a Gold Open Access article in the next issue/volume of the journal where the APC is covered by the university. These articles will be immediately published as freely available to all readers globally regardless of subscription access or association.
Articles that are not approved by the university will still be published depending on the subsequent decision made by the author to publish as Open Access of ‘Closed’/’Subscription’. ‘Closed’/’Subscription’ articles will remain behind a paywall whereby only readers with subscription access will be able to read/download the full text of the article.
- The end –
Under TA agreement and as authors from UniSZA, your journal articles can be published as Open Access (OA) articles whereby the Article Publication Cost (APCs) are covered by the University, subject to the terms of the funding agreement with Springer Nature and the University’s own criteria.
Below are the steps that you can refer to in order to submit your articles to the right Springer journals in order to qualify for this benefit.
Step 1: Understanding the basic terms of the Open Access funding agreement between KONSEPt and Springer Nature
The first step is to fully understand the eligibility of your institution as well as which type of journals is covered by this arrangement. You may do so by referring to the links below:
- https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/oa-agreements/malaysia
- https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/oa-agreements/malaysia/konsortium-sumber-elektronik-pendidikan-tinggi
Step 2: How to identify which eligible journals are part of this Open Access funding arrangement
Authors are encouraged to download a copy of the ‘Eligible Journals’ that is part of this arrangement by visiting the link >> https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/oa-agreements/malaysia/konsortium-sumber-elektronik-pendidikan-tinggi and scrolling to the bottom of the page where you will find a link to download the latest list of eligible journals. It is worth noting that only Hybrid journals are part of this funding arrangement.
Authors who wish to publish their articles in Fully Open Access journals can still do so but are subject to receiving individual invoices for the APCs and they will not be covered under this funding arrangement.
Step 3: Identifying the right journal to submit your article/manuscript.
Following Step #2, author are also encouraged to find more information on the homepages of each eligible journal on SpringerNature Link and nature.com to identify the which journals are suitable to submit to base on the subject/topic relevance, article type, audience/readership of your manuscripts. Via the home page authors will be able to identify:
- Aims & Scope of the Journal
- The Editorial Board
- Submission Guidelines
- Pre-submission checklist
- Publishing Options
- Journal Metrics
Sample screenshot of the homepage of the journal Acta Informatica.
Once authors have selected a suitable journal to submit to, they can proceed to submit their manuscripts to the chosen journal.
Step 4: Initial Acceptance/Rejected + Peer-Review
When a manuscript has been submitted to an eligible journal, the manuscript will go through the usual rigorous editorial process which includes the initial acceptance/rejection, peer-review, final acceptance and rejection. All of which are independent from the funding arrangement.
Step 5: Editorial Acceptance and Article Identification
Once an article has been editorially accepted. The corresponding author will be notified (via email) of the decision by the journal’s editor. From the same email, the author receive the invitation to complete the publication process for the article. Corresponding authors will be given the opportunity to identify themselves via 3 methods:
- Selection of Institution
- Institutional Email
- Location (IP Address)
Authors will then be notified that their articles are qualified to be published as an Open Access article under the Open Access funding agreement in this journal and they confirm they are agreeable to this. The manuscript is then submitted to the university for approval to cover the APC for the manuscript.
Step 6: Notice of approval/rejection for Open Access article publication funding
If the University has approved the author’s manuscript to be as an Open Access article and cover the APCs cost, the author will receive an email notification to complete and sign the OA creative commons license. At this stage, should there by other (non APC) cost associated with publishing in the selected journal, payment for these cost need to be made before proceeding with the final publication of the article.
If the article is rejected by the University to cover the APC cost, the author will be given 2 options moving forward.
Do note that rejection as this stage does not mean that the article is rejected editorially. Its status remains as editorially accepted and can be published.
- The author can either continue to still publish their articles as Open Access articles but will have to pay for the APCs directly or
- The author can opt to publish their articles as a ‘Closed’/’Subscription’ article without the need to pay for the APCs.
Step 7: Manuscript publication.
Articles that have been approved by the University will be published as a Gold Open Access article in the next issue/volume of the journal where the APC is covered by the university. These articles will be immediately published as freely available to all readers globally regardless of subscription access or association.
Articles that are not approved by the university will still be published depending on the subsequent decision made by the author to publish as Open Access or ‘Closed’/’Subscription’. ‘Closed’/’Subscription’ articles will remain behind a paywall whereby only readers with subscription access will be able to read/download the full text of the article.
- The end –
