As of 1 January 2023 funding will be provided within the framework of the “Open Access Publication Costs” programme of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG). The first period of the new programme will end on 31 December 2025. Funding has also been granted for the second period from 2026 to 2028.

Publication fees for articles in OA journals are subsidised with 1,400 Euros (gross) if the following criteria are met:

• The corresponding author is a member or affiliate of TU Darmstadt or has been affiliated when the article was submitted.
• The journal has a quality assurance procedure and is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
• The article will be published under a Creative Commons licence. In its Open Access Policy (opens in new tab), TU Darmstadt recommends the CC BY licence.
• The overall publication costs may exceed 1,400 Euros. Partial funding is possible. Existing third-party funding for publications must be used as a matter of priority.
• The article will contain the ORCID iD for author identification.
• The affiliation designation of TU Darmstadt defined in the Publication guidelines (opens in new tab) will be used in the publication.

TUDa ECR Funding „independent work“
Early Career Researchers receive additional funding of a maximum of EUR 1,400 (gross), i.e. a maximum total of EUR 2,800 (gross), provided that the publication proves scientific independence of the author. This is the case within the funding framework if neither the head of the research group nor the doctoral supervisor is a co-author.

Funding is not available for the following

• Articles in hybrid journals (subscription journals where individual articles are published Open Access for a fee). Hybrid journals for which transformative agreements approved by the DFG apply are excluded. The ESAC Registry provides orientation.
• Articles in mirror journals (OA versions of existing subscription journals with almost the same name) even if they are listed in the DOAJ. This list is for guidance: “Open Access Monitor: Mirror Journals 2.0”

Checklist (opens in new tab) for the eligibility of journal articles

If not all these points apply to your article, please contact us so we can look into other funding possibilities for you.

Application form for the Publishing Fund

Information on billing procedure

The article fees are usually invoiced directly to the authors by the publishers. Please be advised, that tax is usually not reflected in the publishers' APC invoices. For your budgeting you should assume a tax rate of 19%.

The invoices are pre-assigned by the author's institute and forwarded to ULB, which checks and arranges partial funding from the OA fund. The entire invoice amount is then paid by the financial accounting department. 

Funded open access articles since 2023

Funded open access articles from 2017 – 2022

AIP Publishing

TU Darmstadt participates in the Read & Publish Agreement with AIP Publishing (term 2024-2026). Corresponding authors can publish open access articles in the subscription journals (opens in new tab) free of charge. Eligible article types are peer-reviewed primary research and review. Once the annual article quota has been used up, authors will be charged a discounted publishing fee. Authors can enquire about the current status of the OA quota at ULB.

For fully OA journals, publication costs may be eligible for partial funding from the Open Access Fund, provided that the eligibility criteria are met (see list towards top of this page).

American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

In 2025 ULB has licensed all ASME journals and proceedings. Corresponding authors of TU Darmstadt may publish open access articles in ASME journals and proceedings free of charge. The article fee is waived. Authorised authors are recognised by their official institutional email address (…@tu-darmstadt.de, without subdomains). The Author Journey describes the submission process.

APS Journals

TU Darmstadt is participating in a read & publish agreement with American Physical Society (term 2025-2028). Corresponding authors may publish open access articles in all hybrid journals free of charge. For eligibility article acceptance must be during agreement period. Information on submission process (opens in new tab)

For fully OA journals, publication costs may be eligible for partial funding from the Open Access Fund, provided that the eligibility criteria are met (see list towards top of this page).

Biochemical Society Journals

In 2025, TU Darmstadt participates in a “Subscribe to Open” (S2O) agreement. Corresponding authors affiliated with TU Darmstadt may publish open access articles free of charge in all seven journals of the Biochemical Society. The submission date must be within the year 2025. The workflow guide (opens in new tab) provides information on the submission process.

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

In 2024 and 2025, TU Darmstadt participates in a consortial read and publish agreement negotiated by the Bavarian State Library. Corresponding authors affiliated with TUDa may publish open access articles in CUP's hybrid and open access journals free of charge. The following article types are eligible: Research Article, Review Article, Rapid Communication, Brief Report and Case Report. Articles accepted from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2025 can benefit from this agreement.

Company of Biologists

A Read & Publish agreement (term 2023-2025) allows corresponding authors of TU Darmstadt to publish Open Access articles in all journals of The Company of Biologists without paying a publication fee. The number of free-of-charge OA articles is unlimited. The agreement applies to research articles in the following five journals:
Development
Journal of Cell Science
Journal of Experimental Biology
Disease Models & Mechanisms
Biology Open

The author workflow is described in the Read & Publish Guide.

Elsevier

TU Darmstadt is participating in the Germany-wide DEAL agreement with the scientific publisher Elsevier (term 2024-2028). Members and affiliates involved in active research at TU Darmstadt with submitting corresponding author status may publish their articles Open Access in Elsevier's hybrid and fully OA journals. The eligible journal titles are listed here (spreadsheet “included”).

The following conditions apply:

Hybrid journals (subscription journals with an OA option)

• An article fee is charged for each publication: EUR 2,575 (net) for Elsevier journals, EUR 6,708 (net) for Cell Press or The Lancet. This fee will increase by 3% annually.
• In addition, a service fee of EUR 100 (net) is charged per publication.
• For publications with an acceptance date before 1 August 2024, the article fees were paid centrally by ULB.
• From 1 August 2024 (acceptance date), a fixed amount of EUR 1,400 (gross) per OA article will be paid centrally. The remaining costs will be borne by the authors, research groups or institutes.
• Closed access publishing in hybrid journals will no longer be possible free of charge from the effective date. These costs will be borne by corresponding authors or their research groups or institutes.
• TUDa ECR Funding „independent work":
  Early Career Researchers receive additional funding of a maximum of EUR 1,400 (gross), i.e. a maximum total of EUR 2,800 (gross), provided that the publication proves scientific independence of the author. This is the case within the funding framework if the head of the research group or the doctoral supervisor is not a co-author.

Gold Open Access journals (fully open access journals)

• Elsevier grants a discount of 20% on the list prices (article processing charges, APC) of Elsevier Fully Gold journals and 15% on the list prices of Fully Gold Cell Press and The Lancet journals. All article fees are net prices and depend on the submission date.
• In addition, a service fee of EUR 100 (net) is charged per publication.
• Publication costs can be subsidised with a maximum of EUR 1,400 (gross) by TU Darmstadt OA Fund, provided that the eligibility criteria are met (see list towards top of this page).
• TUDa ECR Funding „independent work":
  Early Career Researchers receive additional funding of a maximum of EUR 1,400 (gross), i.e. a maximum total of EUR 2,800 (gross), provided that the publication proves scientific independence of the author. This is the case within the funding framework if the head of the research group or the doctoral supervisor is not a co-author.

You will find examples of how to calculate publication costs and authors' contributions here: DEAL publication costs 2025 (opens in new tab)(in German only)

When submitting the article, please indicate the affiliation as submitting corresponding author according to the Publication guidelines (opens in new tab): Technische Universität Darmstadt or Technical University of Darmstadt.

Frontiers

In 2025, TU Darmstadt is participating in the consortium agreement between ZB MED and Frontiers (“metered model”). Consequently, corresponding authors will receive a 10% discount on article publishing charges. Publication costs may be eligible for partial funding from the Open Access Fund, provided that the eligibility criteria are met (see list towards top of this page).

IOP Publishing

In 2025, TU Darmstadt is participating in the Germany-wide consortium agreement with IOP Publishing, the publishing house of the Institute of Physics. Authors can publish OA articles of the type “paper”, “special issue paper”, “review” or “letter”“ free of charge in hybrid and gold OA journals (journal title list 2025 (opens in new tab)). Additional costs such as page charges will not be covered. IOPP identifies eligible corresponding authors on the basis of the affiliation entered.

MDPI

In the years 2025 and 2026, MDPI grants a 30% discount on article processing charges if the corresponding author is affiliated with TU Darmstadt when submitting the manuscript.
Publication costs may be eligible for partial funding from the Open Access Fund, provided that the eligibility criteria are met (see list towards top of this page). Some MDPI journals have been removed from the DOAJ in 2024 and are therefore no longer eligible for funding (DOAJ change log).

Microbiology Society

TU Darmstadt is participating in a Publish and Read agreement via ZB MED in 2025. Corresponding authors may publish open access articles in Microbiology Society's journals free of charge. To be eligible authors must use their institutional TUDa email address for submission.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)

Publications in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are fee-based. For immediate open access publications a discounted fee of 5,495 USD is charged.

PsyJOURNALS (Hogrefe Verlag)

Due to an Open Access transformation contract, TU authors can publish OA articles free of charge in PsyJOURNALS, the transformative journals published by Hogrefe. Authorised article types are research or original papers (e.g. review, overview articles, multistudy reports). As corresponding author, please clearly indicate your affiliation with ”Technische Universität Darmstadt“ or ”Technical University of Darmstadt“.

Hogrefe also reduces the APC list prices of these three pure OA journals by 25%: European Journal of Psychology Open, Psychological Test Adaptation and Development (PTAD), Sports Psychiatry – Journal of Sports and Exercise Psychiatry.
Publication costs may be eligible for partial funding from the Open Access Fund, provided that the eligibility criteria are met (see list towards top of this page).

Rockefeller University Press

A read-and-publish agreement (term 2024-2026) offers the opportunity to publish an unlimited number of articles free of charge in the three biomedical journals of Rockefeller University Press: Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM) und Journal of General Physiology (JGP). Research articles whose primary corresponding author is affiliated with TU Darmstadt are eligible. The author workflow is described in the Read & Publish Guide (opens in new tab).

Royal Society of Chemistry

As of 1 January 2024, ULB subscribes to the RSC Gold package, which includes a 15% discount on open access article fees of RSC's journals (list prices for OA publications). Publication costs may be eligible for partial funding from the Open Access Fund, provided that the eligibility criteria are met (see list towards top of this page).

Science Advances

As corresponding authors, TU Darmstadt members receive 15% discount on the publication charges for the Open Access journal ”Science Advances" by AAAS. Publication costs can be subsidised by the OA Publishing Fund. Please find the funding criteria and amount at the top of this page.

SCOAP3

The SCOAP3 Initiative makes scientific publications in the field of high-energy physics accessible in Open Access. Through the participation of TU Darmstadt, its members can publish free of charge in SCOAP3 journals under the CC BY licence (term 2025-2027).

Springer Nature

TU Darmstadt is participating in the Germany-wide DEAL agreement with the scientific publisher Springer Nature (term 2024-2028). Members and affiliates involved in active research at TU Darmstadt with corresponding author status may publish their articles Open Access in Springer Nature's hybrid and fully OA journals. The eligible journal titles are listed here.

The following conditions apply:

Hybrid journals (subscription journals with an OA option)

• An article fee of EUR 2,600 (net) is charged for each publication. This excludes non-research articles.
• In addition, a service fee of EUR 100 (net) is charged per publication.
• For publications with an acceptance date before 1 August 2024, the article fees were paid centrally by ULB.
• From 1 August 2024 (acceptance date), a fixed amount of EUR 1,400 (gross) per OA article will be paid centrally. The remaining costs will be borne by the authors, research groups or institutes.
• Closed access publishing in hybrid journals will no longer be possible free of charge from the effective date. These costs will be borne by corresponding authors or their research groups or institutes.
• TUDa ECR Funding „independent work":
  Early Career Researchers receive additional funding of a maximum of EUR 1,400 (gross), i.e. a maximum total of EUR 2,800 (gross), provided that the publication proves scientific independence of the author. This is the case within the funding framework if the head of the research group or the doctoral supervisor is not a co-author.

Gold Open Access journals (fully open access journals)

• Springer Nature grants a discount of 20% on the list prices of SpringerOpen and BioMed Central titles. All article fees are net prices and depend on the acceptance date.
• In addition, a service fee of EUR 100 (net) is charged per publication.
• Publication costs can be subsidised with a maximum of EUR 1,400 (gross) by TU Darmstadt OA Fund, provided that the eligibility criteria are met (see list towards top of this page).
• TUDa ECR Funding „independent work":
  Early Career Researchers receive additional funding of a maximum of EUR 1,400 (gross), i.e. a maximum total of EUR 2,800 (gross), provided that the publication proves scientific independence of the author. This is the case within the funding framework if the head of the research group or the doctoral supervisor is not a co-author.

You will find examples of how to calculate publication costs and authors' contributions here: DEAL publication costs 2025 (opens in new tab)(in German only)

When submitting the article, please indicate the affiliation as corresponding author according to the Publication guidelines (opens in new tab): Technische Universität Darmstadt or Technical University of Darmstadt..

Taylor and Francis

A transformative agreement (term 2024-2026) allows corresponding authors affiliated with TU Darmstadt to publish open access articles in all Taylor & Francis Open Select Journals, the publisher's more than 2,000 hybrid journals, free of charge. The agreement applies to articles of the type “Research Article” (overview of article types), which are accepted after 1 January 2024.

For fully OA journals, publication costs may be eligible for partial funding from the Open Access Fund, provided that the eligibility criteria are met (see list towards top of this page).

Wiley

TU Darmstadt is participating in the Germany-wide DEAL agreement with the scientific publisher Wiley (term 2024-2028). Members and affiliates involved in active research at TU Darmstadt with responsible corresponding author status may publish their articles Open Access in Wiley's hybrid and fully OA journals. The eligible journal titles are listed here.

The following conditions apply:

Hybrid journals (subscription journals with an OA option)

• An article fee, the so-called Publish-And-Read fee (PAR fee) is charged for each publication. Hybrid journals are divided into three categories (tiers), for which different PAR fees apply: Tier 1 EUR 3,150, Tier 2 EUR 2,700, Tier 3 EUR 2,200. The respective price is indicated in the 'EUR PAR Fee’ column in the journal title list.
• In addition, a service fee of EUR 100 (net) is charged per publication.
• For publications with an acceptance date before 1 August 2024, the article fees were paid centrally by ULB.
• From 1 August 2024 (acceptance date), a fixed amount of EUR 1,400 (gross) per OA article will be paid centrally. The remaining costs will be borne by the authors, research groups or institutes.
• Closed access publishing in hybrid journals will no longer be possible free of charge from the effective date. These costs will be borne by corresponding authors or their research groups or institutes.
• TUDa ECR Funding „independent work":
  Early Career Researchers receive additional funding of a maximum of EUR 1,400 (gross), i.e. a maximum total of EUR 2,800 (gross), provided that the publication proves scientific independence of the author. This is the case within the funding framework if the head of the research group or the doctoral supervisor is not a co-author.

Gold Open Access journals (fully open access journals)

• Wiley grants a discount of 20% on the list prices. Article fees are indicated in the column “EUR APC, Discounted (20%)” of the journal title list. All article fees are net prices and depend on the submission date.
• In addition, a service fee of EUR 100 (net) is charged per publication.
• Publication costs can be subsidised with a maximum of EUR 1,400 (gross) by TU Darmstadt OA Fund, provided that the eligibility criteria are met (see list towards top of this page).
• TUDa ECR Funding „independent work":
  Early Career Researchers receive additional funding of a maximum of EUR 1,400 (gross), i.e. a maximum total of EUR 2,800 (gross), provided that the publication proves scientific independence of the author. This is the case within the funding framework if the head of the research group or the doctoral supervisor is not a co-author.

You will find examples of how to calculate publication costs and authors' contributions here: DEAL publication costs 2025 (opens in new tab)(in German only)

When submitting the article, please indicate the affiliation as responsible corresponding author according to the Publication guidelines (opens in new tab): Technische Universität Darmstadt or Technical University of Darmstadt.