Rules and regulations for the funding of open access publications in the year 2025

In December 2024, Bayreuth University Library (UB) received welcome news that its application for funding within the German Research Foundation’s (DFG) programme “Open Access Publication Funding” has been accepted (for this see also the UBTaktuell article “Open Access Funding by the University Library Bayreuth” from 12th December 2024). As a result, DFG funding is available for open access publications which are published in the years 2025-2027, thus strengthening the University of Bayreuth’s Open Access Publishing Fund. With the help of the Publishing Fund (administered centrally by the UB), Bayreuth researchers can receive financial support for the publication of both open access articles and open access books. In accordance with the “Presidential Advisory Committee for Library Affairs” and as agreed upon with the University Governing Board, the following funding regulations apply for the year 2025:

Articles in gold open access journals (within as well as independent from DEAL)

• Articles in gold open access journals can be funded with up to 2,100 euros per article in 2025.
• This applies to articles in gold open access journals within the framework of DEAL (Elsevier, Springer Nature and Wiley), but also to publications outside the three DEAL publishers.
• In each case, the journal is required to be a ‘genuine’ gold open access journal (no open choice, no open access option, etc.), the article needs to be published in 2025 and must meet the formal criteria for funding from the Publishing Fund.
• More information on the funding of gold open access articles can be found here: https://www.ub.uni-bayreuth.de/de/digitale_bibliothek/open_access/index.html.

Articles in hybrid journals within the framework of DEAL

• Ninety percent of the costs of hybrid publications within the framework of DEAL (PAR fees or paper charges respectively plus taxes and service fees) will be covered by the University of Bayreuth’s Open Access Publishing Fund. Analogous to the regulations in 2024, the remaining ten percent of the costs must be provided by the publishing authors.
• More information on DEAL can be found here: https://www.ub.uni-bayreuth.de/de/digitale_bibliothek/e-journals/Projekt-DEAL/index.html.

Open access books (monographs and edited volumes)

• The publication of open access books by members of Bayreuth University can be supported with a basic funding of up to 2,500 euros per book.
• Furthermore, 15,000 euros of additional funding are available exclusively for open access books that are a direct result of DFG-funded research projects. Open access books resulting from DFG funding contexts can be funded with a maximum of 5,000 euros per book until the total amount has been spent in full.
• The main funding criterion in all cases is compliance with the “Quality Standards for Open Access Books” of the AG Universitätsverlage (Working Group of University Presses).
• More information on open access book funding can be found here: https://www.ub.uni-bayreuth.de/de/digitale_bibliothek/open_access_mono/index.html.

Important:
Any publication funded by the University of Bayreuth’s Open Access Publishing Fund has to include a funding acknowledgement. For publications from DFG-funded programmes, the DFG usage guidelines also stipulate the mandatory insertion of a DFG funding acknowledgement. In these cases, the DFG project number is of major importance. More information on the formats and contents of funding acknowledgements can be found here:: https://www.ub.uni-bayreuth.de/de/digitale_bibliothek/acknowledgements/index.html.