Maximize Your Impact: APC Waivers and Read & Publish Agreements
Maximize Your Impact
APC Waivers and Read & Publish Agreements ⸺ guidance from TMU Libraries
Make your research open and accessible
Open access publishing has become an increasingly important part of the scholarly publishing landscape, helping to ensure that research is freely available to readers around the world. At Toronto Metropolitan University, TMU Libraries’ commitment to Investing in Open Access supports this shift through Read and Publish agreements.
These agreements combine journal subscription access with Article Processing Charges (APCs) waivers or discounts, allowing TMU researchers to publish Open Access and share knowledge publicly without traditional financial barriers.
Why is Open Access publishing important for researchers?
Open Access publishing is a catalyst for research impact because it removes the "paywall" barrier, ensuring that scholarly work is immediately available to global audiences. By making articles free to read, download, and share, Open Access significantly increases a scholar's reach, typically leading to higher citation counts and faster integration of findings into new research. These agreements remove the financial and administrative hurdles that often stand between a researcher and global impact.
Financial equity across disciplines
At TMU, we recognize that not all researchers have access to large federal grants to cover publishing costs. These agreements provide a level playing field, allowing scholars in the Arts, Community Services, and Humanities to publish Open Access more easily.
Increased global citation and impact
Articles published Open Access are proven to reach a wider audience. Because there is no paywall, your research can be read by community members, policy makers, practitioners, and fellow scholars worldwide the moment it is published. This visibility leads to higher citation counts and stronger impact and recognition for your research.
Grant compliance
The Tri-Agency (CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC) requires that all peer-reviewed publications resulting from their funding be made freely available after one year, and in their Draft, Revised Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (external link) , 2025, ask that an open access version of the paper be published immediately. Read and Publish agreements make this kind of compliance much easier.
Ownership and copyright retention
Unlike traditional publishing where authors sign away their rights, these agreements ensure TMU authors retain copyright. Work is typically published under Creative Commons (external link) licences allowing you to reuse your own data and figures freely in future projects and teaching if you choose the most expansive licence like CC BY. (external link)
Who is eligible for the Read and Publish Agreements?
The Corresponding Author must be affiliated with TMU. This includes current students, faculty, instructors, staff, postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars. Please use your @torontomu.ca email when submitting to a journal.
Use the SciFree database to find which journals are covered.
Tools like the SciFree (external link) database further support open access goals by helping researchers search for and identify publishing pathways without cost barriers or find APC discounts that are currently available. Search the database by journal title, ISSN, or keywords to check if the journal you plan to submit to is included in the current agreements.
Only journals that are covered under a Read and Publish (R&P) agreement show up in this database. If a journal has a full fee waiver for publishing, the “Who Pays” column will show a checkmark, and publishing in that journal will be free to the TMU researcher.
If a percentage is listed in the “Who Pays” column, that amount will be deducted from the journal’s APCs. Remember APCs charges can be significant, ensure you have the funds to cover the balance before you submit for publication.
- Search SciFree (external link) to see if a journal that you wish to publish in is covered by a R&P agreement, either as a full fee waiver or a publication discount.
- Submit your paper to a journal covered by a R&P agreement using your @torontomu.ca email account, identifying yourself as the lead author.
- When your paper is accepted, an option to choose the Creative Commons licence available to you will be sent, now choose the Creative Commons option of your choice. Remember CC BY gives you the most flexible reuse of your own work in the future.
- If the R&P agreement was a fee discount and not a fee waiver (such as 25% from Taylor and Francis ) then you will be asked to pay the Open Access fee. No fee will be charged if there is a full fee waiver.