Library & Learning Resources receive open access block grants from the British Heart Foundation (BHF), UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), and the Wellcome Trust. We also manage a limited internal open access fund. These funds are allocated to cover the article processing charges (APC) for approved manuscripts in fully open access journals resulting from research conducted at the university.
University staff are advised to follow the procedures outlined below when manuscripts are ready for submission, as outputs matched to our accounts without prior approval will be rejected.
Details about how to request funding are available in Publishing open access journal articles (login required).
What happens after your funding application?
If, based on the information provided, your selected journal submission qualifies for support from the funds managed by Libraries & Learning Resources for the current financial year or grant period, you will receive an email confirming the registration of your details. If your submission remains unpublished by the end of this period, you will be asked to provide a status update.
Funds will be released only if the application details can be verified against the information provided by the publisher at the time of editorial acceptance. If there are any amendments to your application, such as a change of primary affiliation or resubmission to a different journal, you must notify us by replying to the confirmation email. We will then assess whether it continues to meet the eligibility criteria.
Successful applications may be rescinded if found to be inaccurate. In such cases, the APC invoice remains the applicant's responsibility.
Procedure to follow
If your funding application is successfully registered, you must also ensure that the publisher match your output to our institutional account to facilitate payment approval upon editorial acceptance.
Approved submissions to Frontiers, PeerJ, SAGE, and Springer Nature (including BMC):
- Please ensure you list the University of Birmingham as your primary affiliation throughout the manuscript submission process.
- The submitting corresponding author must be affiliated with the university and use their bham.ac.uk email address to be matched to our account.
- If asked to reconfirm your affiliation, please ensure that the University of Birmingham is selected.
- For manuscripts accepted by Springer Nature (BMC), select 'Yes' if asked whether you would like to make the output available open access via the University of Birmingham's payment profile.
- If you are prompted to raise an invoice, please do not proceed and reply to our confirmation email for assistance.
- Any payment requests submitted to our account without prior authorisation will be declined, as it is necessary for us to maintain a proper balance of the funds under our management.
Approved submissions to all other publishers:
- Please request an invoice addressed to you, using the full University of Birmingham address.
- Invoices addressed to Library & Learning Resources staff will be rejected, as the contract and ultimate responsibility for journal submissions rest with the authors and the publisher.
- Inform the publisher that we are VAT registered and include the following VAT number: GB 729 8561 87.
- For manuscripts accepted by MDPI, ensure the invoice is issued in Pound Sterling.
- No purchase order is required.
- Forward the invoice by replying to our confirmation email, and we will pass it on to Accounts for payment.
Next steps