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Open Access APC Discounts Through the Library

Some of the library's subscriptions to journals and databases can help cover the article processing charges (APCs) for open access publishing. U-M Flint faculty researchers who publish with the following presses can either get discounted or waived APCs if their article is accepted.

  • Cambridge University Press: in 2021 the Thompson Library signed onto Cambridge's Read and Publish program program, allowing UM-Flint faculty to publish in Cambridge's 370+ Open Access Journals
  • BioMed Central (BMC): our institutional membership gives a 15% discount of the APC
  • DeGruyter Journals: Corresponding U-M authors from all three campuses are entitled to a full waiver of the Article Processing Charge (APC) in De Gruyter’s  285+ hybrid journals and a 15% discount on the APC in their 100+ pure open access journals. See more details about the agreement on the De Gruyter website.
  • Elsevier: The University Library has negotiated an agreement with Elsevier which entitles U-M authors from all three campuses to a 10% discount on the open access fee. You can use Elsevier's Journal Search Tool to find eligible titles.
  • IOP Publishing: as part of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, corresponding U-M authors from all three campuses are now able to publish their articles open access in IOP journals, as well as in many of IOP’s society partner journals, at no cost. Details about the agreement are available at the IOP website.
  • Microbiology Society: as part of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, U-M authors are now able to publish their articles open access in all Microbiology Society journals, both hybrid and fully open access titles. See the section called Fee-free Open Access via Publish and Read on the society website for more information.
  • Sage: The University Library has an agreement which entitles U-M authors from all three campuses to a 10% discount on the open access publishing charge (APC) for articles published in Sage's pure gold open access journals.
  • Springer: SpringerOpen institutional membership gives a 15% discount of the APC
  • Public Library of Science (PLoS): through the Big Ten Team Alliance all APCs are waived when publishing in PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine
  • Taylor & Francis: The University Library has negotiated an agreement which entitles U-M authors from all three campuses to a 10% discount on the open access article publishing charge (APC) for articles published in Taylor & Francis and Routledge full open access and Open Select (hybrid) journals. You can use Taylor & Francis' open access cost finder tool to identify eligible journals.
  • Wiley: through the Big Ten Team Alliance a pool of article credits which allow U-M authors to publish their articles in Wiley's hybrid open access journals at no cost to them, covers articles accepted for publication between February 1 - December 31, 2022. When the credits are used up, a 10% discount will be applied to all additional articles.

Predatory Publishing

There has been an explosion in the number of open access journals in recent years. While many are serious scholarly projects that make a solid contribution to academia, some are of dubious intellectual value, and exist primarily to enrich their publishers through publishing fees. 

Journal and Scholar Rankings

h-index

The H-index is a popular measure of publishing impact, where an author's H-index is represented by the number of papers (h) with a citation number ≥ h.

For example, a scientist with an H-index of 14 has published numerous papers, 14 of which have been cited at least 14 times each.

Note: H-index values often vary significantly by database, as each database contains different sources (e.g., peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, or grey literature) and thus different citation counts.

The following databases will calculate h-indexes for researchers.

If you have a ResearchGate account, you can also get an h-index through them:

The H-Index of journals is available through SCImago.

Higher Education News & Professional Development

The following resources are geared to help faculty with professional development and education.