HHU Open Access Fund

As a rule, only first releases published exclusively in fully open access journals or books can be funded.

Funded journal articles must carry the Creative Commons CC-BY licence.

Journals must be listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). For open access books, the publisher must be listed in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) or be a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA).

Contributions to journals are funded up to a sum of 2,000 euros (net fee). If the publication fee exceeds this amount, the funding amount can be used to finance the contribution proportionally and the remaining amount can be financed from other sources (e.g. institute funds).

You can apply for a maximum of €5,000 for open access monographs; proportionate funding is also available for this. Only costs associated with the digital publication can be funded (e.g. no printing costs for additional print copies). To assess eligibility for funding, we require a cost estimate from the publisher.

The total funding amount is limited. Funds are disbursed in the order in which applications are received (first come, first served).

Articles in journals that actually finance themselves through a subscriptions model but make individual articles available via open access for a fee (e.g. SAGE Choice, Elsevier sponsored articles, etc.) are not eligible for funding.

In addition, articles in so-called mirror journals are excluded from funding. A current list of mirror journals can be found here.

If publication funds have been obtained for a contribution, for example within the framework of third-party funded projects, these must be used first. Any amounts exceeding this can be applied for via the OA fund.

HHU must be specified as the affiliation.

Feel free to contact us before you apply. This will allow us to clarify in advance whether funding will actually be possible and to help you to find alternative publishing options as necessary.

In the application form, enter the total publication fee due. If the publication fee exceeds the amount eligible for funding, additional fields will open. Here you confirm that you will pay the amount in excess of the funding amount and how you will do so. If the amount is to be financed via a cost centre at HHU, enter this and confirm that the costs are covered and that you may dispose of these funds. The ULB will then book the costs to the corresponding centre. If you belong to the Faculty of Medicine, this confirmation is not required, as amounts exceeding the funding amount are financed via the Dean's Office.

Please use our online form to apply for funding as early as possible. We’ll let you know as soon as possible whether the publication fee can be covered.

Please note that funding approval is only valid for 12 months and applies exclusively for the data specified in your application. Therefore, please inform us immediately of any changes in the funding-relevant criteria of your publication, in particular a change of journal/ anthology or publisher or corresponding resp. submitting author.

Please let us know as soon as possible if your article is not published after all or you no longer wish to take advantage of our funding for other reasons so that we can release the funds.

Please use our online form to apply.