We are delighted to announce that Durham University has joined the national open access deal agreed between Jisc Collections and Frontiers.

Durham University supports its researchers in making their research more widely available. As part of this support, Durham University Library has entered into a discount agreement with Frontiers. Under the terms of this agreement, eligible authors from Durham may publish in any Frontiers journal and there will be a 10% discount to the cost of the APC – only where the remainder of the fee is to be covered by either the UKRI Open Access Grant Award or the Wellcome Trust Open Access Grant Award.

The benefit to you, as an author, is a simplified process for indicating who will make the payment for your invoice and ensuring that the invoice is sent to the Open Access Team.

Eligible authors are:

• Authors who have already confirmed with the Durham Open Access Team that existing UKRI or Wellcome open access funding is available to them to cover the remaining costs of the APC.

Information for authors:

Important: Please ensure that you contact openaccess.publishing@durham.ac.uk before the point of submission to request that funds are committed for you.

If another individual or department of the University will be paying the invoice, do not select “Durham University” as the payer in the Payment and funding information/Frontiers institutional members section of the submission system. Please add their specific details for billing in the Payment and funding information/Individual payer section.

Once you have confirmation that funds are committed:

• To submit your article under this agreement, please select “Durham University” as the payer in the Payment and funding information/Frontiers institutional members section when submitting your article and also make sure that you provide your grant information (including grant code). 

• Once the article has been submitted and Durham University has been selected as the payer, the Open Access Team will be able to “approve” or “decline” payment.

• Once this has happened you will receive an email from Frontiers to confirm this.

• If you receive an email that states that:

Durham University has declined this request, meaning your article is not eligible for the terms of the agreement and the APC will not be invoiced to Durham University. Instead, the corresponding author(s) will receive the invoice.

do not return to the Frontiers submission system and reinstate “Durham University” as the payer unless you have contacted the Open Access Team and you have now had confirmation that the payment will be made from one of the Block Awards. If someone else in Durham University is making the payment please accept the invoice to your own email address and then forward this to the correct recipient.

For information on whether your article is eligible under this agreement, or if you require any further details, please visit https://durham-uk.libguides.com/open_research/publishingOA/publisherdeals or contact openaccess.publishing@durham.ac.uk

For information on Frontiers’ institutional agreements please visit our institutional memberships page or contact institutions@frontiersin.org to discuss the possibilities for your organization.