04/28/2026
By Noureddine Melikechi and Galadriel Chilton

Publishing Open Access (OA) provides compliance with federal funding mandates and allows authors to retain the copyright to their work with a Creative Commons (CC) license. Additionally, evidence indicates that OA articles are downloaded and cited more than their paywalled counterparts.

UMass Lowell actively supports open access publishing and the article processing charges that may be required in three ways:

  1. Article Processing Charges (APCs) Covered by Library Negotiated Publishing Agreements
    Thanks to negotiations by librarians, corresponding authors can publish in the following publishers’ gold and hybrid journals without paying APCs:
    • American Chemical Society (ACS)
    • American Society for Microbiology (ASM)
    • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
    • Cambridge University Press
    • Company of Biologists
    • Institute of Physics (IOP)
    • Oxford University Press (with some exceptions)
    • Wiley (with some exceptions)

    For guidelines on publishing open access with these journal publishers, visit the Library Support for Publishing web page.

  2. Diamond Open Access (APC Free) Models
    The library also supports membership-funded open publishing without APCs such as the Open Journals Collective and Annual Reviews (physical and social sciences journals). For help identifying diamond OA journals, please email ask@uml.libanswers.com or call 978-934-3213.

  3. Open Access Sustainability Fund
    The UMass Lowell Open Access Publishing Fund (OAPF) is a partnership between the Office of Sustainability and the UMass Lowell University Library. This fund provides financial support to authors publishing in open access journals with APCs. Visit UML’s Open Access Publishing Fund (OAPF) web page for more information.