Open Access Journal Articles

New funding conditions for articles in MDPI journals

Since October 1, 2023, we will only fund articles in MDPI journals if the journals are included on a subject-specific positive list developed by members of the relevant disciplines (see below).

Many OA journals charge article fees (article processing charges) to publish an article. They can be paid from the OA Publication Fund, if the conditions mentioned here are met. We make available a copy of the funded articles in a collection on the KOBRA publication server. We are happy to answer any questions that you may have.

The following conditions must be met if the article fees are going to be paid from our fund:

  • The article must appear in a purely OA journal with a quality assurance procedure that is recognised in the relevant discipline (normally a peer review). We check this by ensuring that the journal is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Any articles in journals, which are not listed there, will only be supported from the fund in exceptional cases, provided that serious quality assurance has been clearly proven and any fraudulent background to the publishing house can be unequivocally ruled out.
  • In the case of journals published by MDPI, the journal must also be included on a subject-specific list (see below).
  • The publication fee for an article may not exceed a net figure of EUR 2,000 (plus 19% VAT). Higher fees can be subsidized proportionately up to this amount from 2022. The costs exceeding this amount are to be paid by the authors. (The DEAL Agreements enable corresponding authors of the University of Kassel to publish articles free of charge in purely OA journals published by the Wiley, Springer Nature and Elsevier publishing houses). 
  • The submitting / corresponding author of the article must be a member of the University of Kassel.

We do not subsidise:

  • Fees for Open Access articles in hybrid journals where subscriptions must be paid. (Some OA transformative agreements enable corresponding authors of the University of Kassel to publish articles free of charge in hybrid journals published by several publishing houses).
  • Additional fees such as color page charges, extra page charges, charges for language editing services, layout editing etc.
  • Articles in so-called mirror journals (parallel open access editions of subscription journals), even if listed in DOAJ. This includes, but is not limited to, these journals.
  • Articles in journals published by MDPI that are not included on the subject-specific list below.

Timing

Applications for the fund to pay article fees can be made as soon as the article has been accepted for publication in an Open Access journal. It is not possible to reserve funds at the time when the article is submitted. Before submitting your article, please feel free to find out about the prospects of funding from us.

Form

Please send an informal e-mail to openaccess[at]bibliothek.uni-kassel[dot]de and provide the following details:

  • the title of the journal
  • the title of the article
  • the corresponding author
  • the amount of the article fees incurred

Applications received are reviewed for approval on the basis of whether they comply with the aforementioned conditions.  

Settling invoices

Please request invoices for your articles from the publishing houses, as far as possible, according to the instructions of the finance department always specifying your own cost centre (!), which must be mentioned on the first page of the invoice. PDF invoices must be sent to rechnung[at]uni-kassel[dot]de, while invoices in digital format must be sent to Xrechnung[at]uni-kassel[dot]de.

The article fees for applications, which have been approved, are paid directly from the fund. Please make sure you cover the following points:

  • The invoice must meet the instructions provided by the financial department for central incoming invoices (see above).
  • Invoices from publishing houses in EU countries must include the international VAT no. of the University of Kassel, so that no local value-added tax is calculated. The number is: DE 113057055. The university’s financial department adds the German value-added tax to all foreign invoices and pays it directly to the tax authorities.

If all the funding conditions have been met and payment from the fund can be approved, we will pay the invoice directly via our cost centre. You or your secretary can forward the invoice within the electronic invoice processing system. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

We can also settle invoices that have been sent to you personally and not to the central invoice system for the time being. If this is the case, please forward the invoice together with your application.

The results of a survey among scientists at the University of Kassel show that the quality of journals published by MDPI is assessed very differently. Therefore, since October 1, 2023, we only support articles from our fund in MDPI journals that are considered suitable by the respective disciplines. The following overview shows whether and which MDPI journals your department or subject has selected for funding. Only if the journal in which you would like to publish is on your subject's list, we can support your article from our fund.

Department 01: Human Sciences

  • Psychology
    • Journal of Intelligence
    • Psych
  • Education: no funding
  • Social Work and Social Welfare: no funding
  • Music: no funding

Department 02: Humanities

  • Theology: no funding
  • Philosophy: no funding
  • German Studies: no funding
  • English/American Studies:
    • Digital
    • Education Sciences
    • Languages
    • Multimodal Technologies and Interaction
    • Trends in Higher Education
  • Romance Studies: no funding

Department 05: Social Sciences

  • History: no funding
  • Political Science: no funding
  • Sociology: no funding
  • Physical Education and Sport Science: no funding

Department 06: Architecture, Urban Planning and Landscape Planning

  • entire department: no funding

Department 07: Economics and Management

  • Vocational Education: no funding
  • Management and Business Studies, Economics: no funding
  • Business Law: no funding

Department 10: Mathematics and Natural Sciences

  • Biology
    • Antioxidants
    • Biomolecules
    • Cells
    • Journal of Developmental Biology
    • Journal of Fungi
    • Micoorganisms
    • Toxins
  • Chemistry
    • Colloids and Interfaces
    • Education Sciences
    • Inorganics
    • Molecules
    • Nanomaterials
    • Photochem
    • Polysaccharides
    • Sustainable Chemistry
  • Physics
    • Atoms
    • Molecules
    • Nanomaterials
    • Photonics
  • Mathematics: no funding

Department 11: Organic Agricultural Sciences

  • entire department
    • Agronomy
    • Animals
    • Crops
    • International Journal of Plant Biology
    • Journal of Fungi
    • Journal of Molecular Pathology
    • Remote Sensing

Department 14: Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • entire department
    • Hydrology

Department 15: Mechanical Engineering

  • entire department
    • Alloys
    • Applied Sciences
    • Crystals
    • Education Sciences
    • Energies
    • Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing
    • Metals
    • Molecules
    • Multimodal Technologies and Interaction
    • Nanomaterials
    • Photonics
    • Robotics
    • Sensors
    • Smart Cities
    • Surfaces
    • Virtual Worlds

Department 16: Electrical Engineering / Computer Science

  • entire department
    • Applied Sciences
    • Atmosphere
    • Chemosensors
    • Energies
    • International Journal of Geo-Information
    • Metrology
    • Micromachines
    • Nanomaterials
    • Photonics
    • Remote Sensing
    • Sensors
    • Smart Cities

Kunsthochschule

  • entire department: no funding

The University of Kassel participates in several OA transformative agreements which enable members of the University of Kassel to publish their articles Open Access in all or some of these publishers' hybrid journals at no personal costs. Some of these contracts also cover articles in pure OA journals. Details can be found on the page on publishing agreements.