Earlier this year, the maximum number was also reached for publishers Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) and Taylor & Francis (T&F). It is expected that later this year the maxima for Oxford University Press (OUP) and American Chemical Society (ACS) will be reached. Make sure you do not receive the bill unintentionally.
The agreement that UNL has made with Springer on behalf of the Dutch universities, including Vrije Universiteit and Amsterdam UMC - location VUMC, applies to a maximum of 2.067 Open Access articles per year.
During the suspension of the agreement, you can choose to publish closed access (free of charge) or open access through own financing. In the last case you will have to provide for the APC-payment yourself. There is no central Open Access VU fund to which claims can be made.
Alternative for VU authors: automatically open access after 6 months
The VU Open Access policy ensures that the publisher’s version of your work will be made available through the VU Research Portal after an embargo of 6 months. This regulation applies to all authors of the Vrije Universiteit (VUmc excluded) on the basis of article 25fa of the Dutch copyright law. Should you wish to exclude your publication from being made Open Access, you can opt-out.
Alternative for Amsterdam UMC, VUmc authors
The AUMC library advises not to buy an extra APC and just publish your articles as ‘closed’. The AUMC library will republish a PDF of your article Open Access in the Pure portal on your behalf after 6 months following the Amsterdam UMC Open Science policy.
Demands research funders
If your research funder (f.e. NWO or Horizon Europe) demands that you share your work in open access immediately (without embargo), and under an open license, please contact the Open Access-team of the University Library.
And next year?
From the 1st of January 2026 on, corresponding authors can once again make use of the new APC-discounts. Researchers who want to stay informed about the status of deals can sign in for an ‘notify-me service’. This service can also be used to receive updates about other publishers with a maximum amount of open access publications.
Do you have questions or are you looking for an alternative way to publish your article open access? Please contact openaccess@vu.nl
