What can be funded from our publication fund if members of JGU publish an article in an Open Access journal or an Open Access monograph? How do you receive this funding? Below we have summarized the criteria and steps for you. Members of the University Medical Center can find further information in the University Medical Center’s overview.
Step 1
First, please check whether the eligibility criteria are met.
Our funding is subject to certain conditions. Before applying, please check whether these requirements are met.
Incoming applications for funding will be processed in the order in which they are received, until funds are exhausted.
1. Eligible Publication Formats
- Funding is provided for journal articles. Contributions in anthologies are not eligible.
2. Eligible Groups of People
- Applications can be submitted by employees or enrolled students of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU).
- The applicant proves that he/she is fully responsible for paying the article processing fee as a "submitting" or "corresponding author".
3. Funding Amount and Pricing
- A maximum of €2,000 per article will be reimbursed, including the sales tax of 19% that must always be taken into account. Should the costs be higher, a pro rata reimbursement will be made up to a maximum of € 2,000 per item. Any additional costs incurred must be covered by the applicant themselves. In the case of invoices in foreign currencies, the invoice amount actually paid in euros plus the 19% sales tax to be paid in Germany applies (if not already included in the invoice amount).
Many publishers know that Open Access article funding has a cutoff. Talk to your publisher about a discount. It may be worth it! - Separately reported additional costs that are not plausible when it comes to the production of digital publications, such as for additional pages (page charges) or color illustrations (color charges), will not be refunded.
- If a publication is created within a project funded by third-party funds, the applicant must confirm that no (sufficient) third-party funds are available for the publication.
4. Accessibility and Reusability
- The article to be published appears in a real Open Access journal, i.e. all articles of this journal are accessible on the internet free of charge immediately after publication. The journal must not be subscription-based at the same time.
- The publication is published under a permanent address (DOI).
The applicant must have an ORCID iD and provide it when applying for funding. For more information on the ORCID iD, visit: Author identification with the ORCID iD: Why and for Whom? - Funding is only granted for articles whose comprehensive reusability for research is legally secured. The publisher provides this proof by assigning anOpen Content license. We accept “CC BY” licenses. If your article is published under another open license, please contact us.
- Authors are responsible for entering and maintaining their publication lists in JGU’s research information system (FIS),Gutenberg Research Elements, and must ensure that the publication for which the application is being submitted is included.
- The publication must then be sent to the JGU repository, Gutenberg Open Science, using the deposit function in FIS. Our Instructions for Full-Text Upload will help you with this.
5. Quality Assurance
- The journal is subject to strict quality assurance, as recognized in the respective subject. Adequate quality assurance of the journal can be proven either by listing the journal in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) or by another binding description. Journals from MDPI / IOAP must be listed in the DOAJ.
The publication fund for Open Access books for 2025 has been exhausted. Non-binding funding reservations can be made for publications appearing in 2026.
Funding for books and anthologies is subject to certain requirements. Before applying, please check whether these requirements are met.
Funding applications are processed in the order in which they are received, until the available funds are exhausted.
The decision on funding lies with the University Library.
1. Eligible Publication Formats
- Monographs and anthologies are eligible for funding. Anthologies are only eligible for funding if a "Book Processing Charge" is levied for the entire anthology.
- Dissertations are generally not eligible for funding. An exception are dissertations published Open Access by Mainz University Press . The maximum funding amount here is €2,000.
2. Eligible Groups of People
- Applications can be submitted by authors or editors who are enrolled students or employees of JGU. Employees in this sense are persons who work at least 16% of the regular weekly working hours. You are fully responsible for paying the publisher’s invoice.
- The authors’ affiliation with JGU must be clearly recognizable in the publication.
3. Funding Amount and Pricing
- Our maximum funding is €5,000. The cutoff includes the German sales tax of 19%, which must always be taken into account. For foreign currency invoices, the actual amount paid in euros will be reimbursed, along with the applicable 19% German VAT (unless already included in the invoice).
- The authors are fully responsible for paying the publisher's invoice.
- Costs for split invoices with external institutions can be covered.
- If the publication arises from a third-party funded project, the applicant must confirm that no (sufficient) third-party funds are available to cover the publication costs.
- The publisher must have a comprehensible total cost calculation that is based on the specific requirements of the title in question.
- If research sponsors have made the Open Access publication possible, they have to be named in the document and, if applicable, in the metadata.
4. Accessibility and Visibility
- Access to the digital version of the publication is made free and public immediately upon publication, without financial, legal or technical barriers. Paid editions such as a print edition appear at the same time or follow the Open Access version.
- The publication is clearly marked as an Open Access publication in all formats and editions.
- The Open Access version of the publication is made available on the publisher’s/publication service’s website, together with any additional paid versions.
- The obligation to submit all published editions to the respective national libraries and to the respective state libraries must be fulfilled.
- Each publication receives a Persistent Identifier from the publisher, preferably a DOI or URN.
- Long-term archiving is carried out by a correspondingly certified service. (These can be services of the respective national libraries (DNB–long-term archiving system–Our digital long-term archiving system) or a central service provider such as CLOCKKS or Portico (Home–Portico).
- Text and Data Mining (TDM) is technically enabled and legally permitted. This includes the automatic downloading, extraction, and indexing of full texts and associated metadata.
- The publications are published and archived in at least one digital file format suitable for long-term archiving.
- Authors are responsible for entering and maintaining their publication lists in JGU’s research information system (FIS): Gutenberg Research Elements
- When submitting the funding application, the applicant must also upload their publication to the JGU repository (Gutenberg Open Science).
5. Rights
- Authors and editors grant the publisher/publication service non-exclusive usage right, thereby retaining the right to grant usage rights to other parties and to publish the work or parts of it elsewhere.
- The authors and editors grant the general public extensive usage options by granting an Open Access-compliant Creative Commons license, if possible CC BY.
- The rights to images and other third-party materials that are subject to third-party rights have been cleared and clearly identified.
- Rights and license information is stored in machine-readable form on the editorial page and in the metadata of the files. They are available as a license name and as a link to the license.
6. Quality Assurance
- The publisher’s/publication service’s quality assurance methods are described transparently on the website.
- A peer review or appraisal process that corresponds to subject-specific standards is used for the scientific examination.
- There are established procedures to ensure good scientific practice that take effect before, during, and after publication. Relevant contact persons are named.
The DFG offers further funding opportunities. Please inform yourself here:
DFG–German Research Foundation–Revision of the publication grant funding program
Step 2
Then check whether your publication should appear with a publisher with whom we have agreed special conditions for publication fees.
In addition to negotiated discounts, we have also established central invoicing for publication costs with certain publishers.
All that is required during submission is to identify yourself as an author from JGU. The invoice for accepted publications is then sent directly to us and paid by us. Step 3 is not required for these publishers.
Step 3
In cases where your publication is not covered by our centralized invoicing agreements, please complete and send us the application form.
Journal articles:
When submitting your application, please include the itemized invoice, proof from FIN of tax remittance, a conversion slip for the amount paid in euros (if applicable), and a MACH report detailing the recorded transactions.
Books:
Please enclose an invoice with your application detailing the services for which the publisher charges a Book Processing Charge (BPC).
Contact
The following contacts are available to answer your questions about the Open Access Publishing Fund:
