Publication Fund
What is the Publication Fund?
The Publication Fund of Bielefeld University supports the publication of open access monographs, edited volumes, contributions to edited volumes and articles in open access journals. Only publications by researchers who are working at Bielefeld University at the time the manuscript is submitted are financially supported. They must appear as “submitting author” or “corresponding author”.
Funding Criteria
The article in question appears in a journal whose articles are fully available in "Open Access". Such journals are usually listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals. The oa.finder tool can help you find a suitable open access journal.
The journal/publisher applies recognised, strict quality assurance procedures ("peer review procedure") in the respective subject.
The monograph or edited volume is published completely in Open Access.
Exception DEAL: Within the DEAL consortium there are separate agreements with the publishers Wiley, Springer Nature and Elsevier. Please follow the linked instructions when submitting to Wiley, Springer Nature and Elsevier journals.
Funding Amount
The maximum funding amount for an Open Access article or collective work contribution is €2,000 (incl. VAT).
The maximum funding amount for an Open Access monograph/volume is €4,500 (incl. VAT).
Funding is provided by Bielefeld University and the German Research Foundation (DFG).
The authors themselves decide which CC license they grant. A CC BY license is recommended.
Changes from 2025: no more application procedure
From 2025, applications will no longer need to be submitted for funding. The Publication Fund will automatically pay the invoices for eligible publications received by the university. The invoice processors in the faculties will be informed by a text message in SAP whether a publication is fully, partially or not at all eligible for funding.
The invoice should be addressed to the Faculty of the "submitting author" or "corresponding author". The invoice should include the name of the author, the name of the journal/publisher and the title of the article/monograph. Otherwise, the usual invoice requirements for university invoices apply. Invoices received by the university for publications are allocated to the publication fund in SAP.
If an invoice is fully eligible for funding, the authors will be informed of the funding by email after the invoice has been paid by the Publication Fund.
If an invoice is only partially eligible, the costs are shared between the Publication Fund and the authors (“cost splitting”). A text message in SAP informs the responsible invoice processing department in the faculty of this option, provides information on the further steps required and, if necessary, requests contact.
The contact forms linked on this page are available for queries. Please use these forms! They will enable the Publication Fund support team to prepare thoroughly for your request.
Please note: The new process will initially be introduced for a test phase of 6 months. Process adjustments may be made after this period. Please continue to follow the instructions on this website!
Documentation
All funded publications are archived by Bielefeld University Library in the institutional repository PUB - Publications at Bielefeld University. In order to render transparent the price development of fee-based open access publishing, Bielefeld University’s Publication Fund participates in the OpenAPC initiative.
Contact
Team Expenditure Monitoring and Open Access
E-mail: oa.ub@uni-bielefeld.de
If possible, please use the contact forms linked above!