Open Access

• The applicant must be a faculty member, staff member, or student affiliated with the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
• The applicant must be an author or a co-author for the journal article or monograph (i.e., the "work") for which this application is submitted.
• The work must be accepted for publication (i.e., the publisher will not require additional peer review).
• The author or co-authors must not have another source of funding (e.g., federal research award, foundation grant) that covers publication charges.

Reimbursement/Direct Payment

Award recipients have two options.

• Recipients may pay the open access publishing fee themselves and receive reimbursement (up to $2000).
• The open access publishing fee (up to $2000) is paid directly to the publisher on behalf of the author.

Terms and Conditions for Award Recipients

If your application is approved, you will be expected to fulfill the following mandates.

• The published work must include an acknowledgment of support from the Open Access Publishing Fund administered through the University of Arkansas Libraries.
• The work must be open access immediately upon publication and remain permanently open access (An article may appear in either a hybrid or a fully open access journal, as long as the article itself is immediately and permanently open access).
• The work must be published under any version of a Creative Commons (CC) License. For more information, please refer to the Creative Commons Licenses Library Guide.
• A copy of the published work must be submitted to the ScholarWorks@UARK repository.

What type of support for open access publishing does this agreement provide?

According to the agreement, Cambridge will waive the article processing charge (APC) for 14 open access articles published by University of Arkansas Fayetteville authors each year. After this annual allotment has been used, individual authors affiliated with the University of Arkansas Fayetteville will receive a 20% discount on the APC. That is, Cambridge will charge the author 80% of the usual APC for the specific journal. 

Which journals does the agreement cover?

The agreement covers journals published by Cambridge University Press. The University of Arkansas Fayetteville webpage on the Cambridge website includes a link to a spreadsheet listing eligible journals.

Who is eligible for the article processing charge (APC) waiver?

Eligibility is limited to articles for which the corresponding author is a faculty member, a staff member, or a student affiliated with the University of Arkansas Fayetteville. Cambridge provides a definition of corresponding author.

Are there any additional eligibility requirements?

Eligibility criteria for the article processing charge (APC) waiver include:

• The corresponding author must be a faculty member, a staff member, or a student affiliated with the University of Arkansas Fayetteville.
• The article must be one of the following types: research article, review article, rapid communication, brief report, or case report. The University of Arkansas Fayetteville webpage on the Cambridge website includes definitions of these publication types.
• The article must be made open access in a journal published by Cambridge University Press. 
• The author and co-authors must not have another source of funding (e.g., a federal research award, a foundation grant) that would cover the APC.
• An author may receive only one APC waiver per year.

What is the process for submitting an article and applying for the article processing charge (APC) waiver?

If you wish to apply for an APC waiver under the Cambridge agreement, please follow these steps.

1.  Follow the standard process for submitting your manuscript to a Cambridge journal and indicate interest in open access publishing.
2.  When the journal editors accept your manuscript for publication, request the waiver through Cambridge system RightsLink. For more   instructions for using Cambridge's online system RightsLink process, please see this author guide.
3.  A designated library team will review your request and, if you and your article meet the criteria specified above, approve the waiver.
4.  The entire transaction will take place on the Cambridge website. There’s no need to process a check or transfer funds from one account   to another.

Cambridge offers the video Author Journey Presentation which gives an overview of the process.

Where can I learn more?

You can learn more about our read and publish agreement on the University of Arkansas Fayetteville webpage on the Cambridge website.

Cambridge also offers information about open access publishing on the webpage Open Access Resources.

What type of support for open access publishing is available?

Eligible authors receive a 10% discount on the article processing charge (APC) or the book processing charges (BPC) through MDPI’s Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP).  Please note that the IOAP discount may not be combined with other discount forms, such as reviewer vouchers or editorial waivers.

What are the eligibility criteria?

Any of the article or book’s authors must be a faculty member, staff member, postdoc, or student affiliated with the University of Arkansas Fayetteville.

How do I apply for the discount?

First, please check the journal’s 'For Authors' page for any specific requirements. Then, follow MDPI's standard procedure for submitting the manuscript, using your institutional email address (@uark.edu). Immediately after the submission stage has been completed, you should select "University of Arkansas, Fayetteville" from the IOAP participant list to ensure the discount is applied.

Please note that the 10% discount via participation in the IOAP is not eligible with other discounts available in MDPI journals.

How does the discount process work?

When the time comes to pay the APC, MDPI applies the 10% Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) discount and bills the corresponding author (or the author designated to receive the invoice).

Please note that the Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) may not be combined with other discount forms, such as reviewer vouchers or editorial waivers.

Where can I learn more?

MDPI provides an overview on the webpage APC Information.

You may also send questions to scholar@uark.edu.