Open Access Publication Services

TU Braunschweig Open Access Publication Fund provides financial support for the publication of articles in OA journals, OA conference papers, articles / chapters in OA anthologies, and complete OA monographs. The resources for the fund are provided by the DFG and the TU Braunschweig. Applications can be submitted at any stage of the publication process.

Publication Fund Application Form

Funding requirements for articles in Open Access Journals:

• You are a researcher at TU Braunschweig and "Corresponding Author" of the submitted manuscript.
• Your article will be published in a Gold Open Access journal, i.e. all articles in this journal will be provided free-of-charge via the Internet immediately after publication. The majority of OA journals are listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
• The journal is peer-reviewed, i.e. it is verified on its quality by independent peer reviewers.
• The article processing fee (APC) is funded with a maximum of 2,000 EUR incl. VAT. If the APC should be higher, please contact us.

Are not eligible for funding:

• The fee-based "activation" of an article in a subscription-based journal (hybrid journal, "Open Choice" model). There are exceptions for publishers with whom it has been agreed that authors will not be charged for activation (such as Wiley and SpringerNature). Detailed information can be found under "Special conditions of individual publishers".
• Publications from third-party-funded projects, where the third-party funding provider covers the publication fees completely.

To submit your application, please use the application form.

Funding conditions for Open Access monographs, contributions to Open Access Volumes, conference Papers, etc:

•     Please contact openaccess(at)tu-braunschweig

  For information on the application process and billing, please see our FAQs.

In case of a grant, we ask you to indicate the financial support from the Publication Fund in your publication in the following way:

•  We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of Technische Universität Braunschweig. (English publications)
• Diese Publikation wurde gefördert durch den Open Access-Publikationsfonds der Technischen Universität Braunschweig. (German publications)

List of funded publications

The University Library has arranged special conditions or discounts for open access publishing with various publishers. On this website you will find these publishers listed alphabetically with information on the conditions, the procedure and further links. Please note that the publisher discounts can only be claimed if you are a corresponding author.

The University Library will support you in finding a suitable OA journal or OA publisher for your monograph. Feel free to contact your responsible subject librarian or contact the Open Access team of the University Library directly. Helpful tools for research are also:

• Projekt B!SON (Bibliometric and Semantic Open Access Recommender Network)
• Open Access Finder provided by Open Access Network
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
• Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR)

Self archiving allows the additional publishing of an article after the primary publication in a classical journal of a publishing house.
This can be useful if the article has limited access in the publisher's journal. If authors have transferred their exploitation rights for their articles to a publisher, they are no longer permitted to provide the articles freely via the Internet. The consent of the publishers is required.

The terms of the publishers permitting self archiving can be found in the SHERPA/RoMEO list. Most publications may be self archived after a waiting period of 12 months.

Changes in copyright law ( § 38(4) UrhG ) have permitted self archiving since 1st January 2014, without taking your publishing contract into account, under the following conditions:

•   the original publication was published one year ago
•  the publication is the result of a research project, at least half funded by public authorities (e.g. DFG, BMBF)
• the publication has been published in a periodical appearing at least twice a year (no conference proceedings)
• self archiving is not for commercial purposes

If you would like to use self archiving for your articles and research results, we are pleased to support you. The Digital Library is the official institutional repository of TU Braunschweig and offers all requirements for self archiving.

Please contact us:
digibib(at)tu-braunschweig.de
+49 (0) 531  391 5052

The University Library provides comprehensive advice on the assignment and use of Creative Commons licenses. In the spirit of Open Access, CC BY or CC BY-SA licenses are favored.

Not sure what Creative Commons licenses are?
Find out on the pages Creative Commons Community or contact us. We will be happy to arrange a meeting with you or your institute. A useful tool is the CC-License-Chooser, which recommends the right license with very few questions.

Please note that the University Library is not allowed to give legally binding advice.

Contact: University Library Open Access Team
openaccess(at)tu-braunschweig.de
+49 (0) 531 391 5067

General Questions

Do I have to wait until the article is accepted by the publisher before I can apply for the publication fund?
No. Applications can be submitted at any time, even if the article will not be published.

Can I submit an application if the article has already published?
Yes, but only in the same calendar year in which the invoice was issued. If the payment of the publication fees was made in the previous calendar year, unfortunately we can no longer refund the costs.

How long does it take to check my application?
You will receive a response within two working days via email.

Questions regarding Funding Requirements

Does the journal in which I want to publish have to be listed in DOAJ?
No, but in  DOAJ you can see all relevant information (article processing charge, type of review, links to the homepage etc.) on the selected OA journal. However, there are also eligible journals that are not listed in the DOAJ. As soon as your application has been received, we will check the eligibility requirements.

Does it have to be a CC-BY license?
No, other CC licenses are also permitted. For an open access publication without a CC license we have to check the terms of use.

Why are publications in hybrid journals not funded?
Publishing in hybrid journals is excluded from DFG supported funds. It is intended to prevent the so-called Double-Dipping of publishers. Only particular articles are free accessible in hybrid journals. Publishers earn money through the subscription of a journal e.g. paid by a library and additionally, via Article Processing Charges (APC) paid by the author or their institution.

How can I identify a hybrid journal?
If Open Access is one of several options, i.e. if the article could be published without Open Access, it is probably a hybrid journal.

What happens if APCs exceed EUR 2,000?
We can provide you a letter that enables you to negotiate with the publisher. Please contact us: openaccess(at)tu-braunschweig.de

Questions regarding Payment and Invoicing

Central invoice payment at MDPI Publishers
MDPI Publishers allows you to choose centralized invoicing during the submission of an article. The invoice will be sent directly to the University Library.

How do I know if the VAT is already included?
On foreign invoices and on websites of publishers, VAT is usually not included in the final amount. In such cases, an additional 19% tax must be taken into account. Therefore, the net amount should not exceed 1,680 EUR.

What should the invoice address look like when paying directly? Does TU Braunschweig have to be listed first on the invoice?
TU Braunschweig needs to be listed first on the invoice and persons or institutes have to be named below TU Braunschweig (see example below). Different invoices are not accepted by the central invoice office.

TU Braunschweig
Name of institute/department
John Doe
Sample street no xx
381xx Braunschweig

What is the VAT ID of TU Braunschweig?
The VAT ID is: DE 152330858.

What do I have to pay attention to when I make a private advance payment?
The University Library will reimburse the costs only to the institute. We do not refund to private accounts. In this case please contact your institute.

The invoice has already been paid by the institute. How does the refund work?
Please use the "Umbuchungsanordnung zwischen zwei Einrichtungen" (provided in the "Infoportal"). The upper part needs to be filled in and signed by the institute (hints).  In addition, the University Library requires the "SAP Belegjournal" of the booking and a copy of the publisher's invoice. Please send the "Umbuchungsanordnung" via internal mail to "Universitätsbibliothek - Publikationsfonds". SAP Belegjournal and invoice can also be sent via e-mail to openaccess(at)tu-braunschweig.de.

I received a payment reminder from the publisher. What should I do?
Please let us know by sending an e-mail to openaccess(at)tu-braunschweig.de.

What happens if there are third party funds available?
The third-party funds have to be spent first. Nevertheless, the article may not exceed 2.000 EUR incl. VAT. Reimbursement of the costs is only possible via a "Umbuchungsanordnung zwischen zwei Einrichtungen" (provided in the "Infoportal").