The University is committed to supporting open access to research outputs to encourage the widest possible dissemination of Brunel research.
Where a fee is charged for publication and provided authors and publication venues meet eligibility and any funder requirements, the University will fund open access article processing charges (APCs). All correspondence requesting payment should be directed centrally to openaccess@brunel.ac.uk.
Publisher finance teams routinely contact authors in the first instance if there are delays to payments, as the transacting party. Unfortunately, delays are routine due to the nature of the publishing transaction. Normally, for most purchasing, a purchase order is requisitioned and sent to a supplier in advance of purchase, often 4-6 weeks before payment would be due. However, for open access publishing, this takes place retrospectively, after invoicing, which is initiated when a publisher confirms acceptance to the author. Payment due dates can be as little as 10 days for publishing charges, which is not aligned with the standard 30 day period.
We recommend that a minimum of 6 weeks is allowed for payment, but this can take longer during busy periods or for new suppliers to allow time for the supplier set up process. There are also additional open access compliance and administrative checks for each transaction which must take place before a payment can be approved.
Please note that while Article Processing Charges are paid to make content open access, the University fund does not support supplementary charges such as page or colour charges which are not related to open access. These fees were introduced in the 20th century by traditional print publishing, before digital publishing became the norm and open access publishing was established. Authors should declare that they do not have funding for these charges or secure alternative sources of funding.
