Coverage of open access publication fees under Read & Publish agreements
Certain contracts signed with scientific journal publishers for access to content, negotiated for higher education and research establishments by the Couperin consortium, now include an open access publication dimension.
Publication costs are therefore borne directly by the institutions under these agreements.
In order to benefit from these Article Processing charges, which are partially or fully prepaid, the author of the article must be affiliated to the subscribing institution when the article is submitted.
Here is a table summarising the publishers with a subscription contract with Sorbonne Université offering this type of prepayment.
Contact at the Archives, Libraries and Museum collections of Sorbonne University : publications@sorbonne-universite.fr
Choice of licence
In the case of publication fees prepaid by the university, we ask you to choose the CC-BY licence. A publication is only open access if it includes an open licence, such as the Creative Commons licences. The CC-BY licence is the most flexible licence and is recommended by research funders such as Horizon Europe and the ANR. Publication under a CC-BY licence allows you to be recognised as the author and gives your readers permission to re-use your work.
Submission to HAL
Finally, it is also recommended to deposit the full text in HAL, in accordance with the commitments made in the Sorbonne University charter for open access to publications.
For assistance with submitting to HAL, contact hal@sorbonne-universite.fr or visit the HAL office on Tuesdays from 2pm to 3pm.
Publishing free of charge in the diamond format
Open access publication is not always synonymous with publication costs, since a number of journals charge neither authors nor readers. These are known as ‘diamond’ journals.
Looking for a journal with no publication fees? Use the directory of open access journals (DOAJ): the advanced search allows you to filter for journals ‘Without article processing charges (APCs)’ (filter to be ticked on the left) https://www.doaj.org/
You can also consult the list of ‘diamond’ journals, which is the result of a study commissioned in 2020/2021 by research funders within cOAlition S. This list will continue to be updated: https://tinyurl.com/diamond-journals
Choosing the right journal
How do you choose a journal for publication? The journal’s scope, the scientific quality of published articles, the composition of the editorial board, and the peer-review process are key criteria for deciding where to publish.
In the health sciences, you can refer to the list of recommended journals from the French Conference of Deans of Medicine and the CNU Santé, compiled from the 2021 list of the Sorbonne University Faculty of Health Sciences. Good to know: This list is integrated into the search filters of the OpenAlex database.
In a context where the race to publish (Publish or Perish ?) and quantitative evaluation place significant pressure on researchers, it is also essential to know how to identify predatory journals. To assess a journal’s credibility, you can use the University of Liège’s tool: Compass to Publish or take our training courses on predatory publishers. Have doubts? Have questions? Feel free to contact us for personalized support.