Frequently Asked Questions about MSU Open Access Publishing Agreements
Does MSU have money to help me publish my journal article open access?
The MSU Libraries is supporting journal article open access publishing by MSU authors through "Read and Publish agreements" with certain publishers. The best way to determine if your article is eligible is to check the publisher of the journal that you are interested in (usually at the top of their web page somewhere) against the list, noting details. There are no agreements or money from the Libraries for publishing open access outside of publishers listed on that web page.
What do I need to do to get my open access publishing charges covered by the MSU Libraries read and publish agreements?
The publishers are aware of our agreements. The author systems are set up to automatically approve you for coverage of open access publishing fees as long as you:
- Are the corresponding author
- Indicate your MSU affiliation on the manuscript
- Use your MSU email for the submission
- Select open access and then "my institution will cover the charges"
If I choose "my institution will cover the charges" will the MSU Libraries or some other office at MSU get a bill? I don't want to cause trouble.
Do not worry! Our agreements have already covered and prepaid your fees. In fact, choosing not to take advantage of the agreement to publish open access wastes MSU money.
The author system is asking me which Creative Commons license to choose. What do you recommend?
The Creative Commons web site describes all of the licenses.
CC-BY: This is the license that the MSU Libraries recommends in most cases. It is fully in the spirit of open access/sharing and allows both you and others to fully use, share, and remix the work as long as you receive proper citation and attribution. This license also ensures that your rights as copyright holder to use your own work however you want cannot be taken away.
CC-BY-NC or CC-BY-NC-ND: These are other commonly presented options. These licenses do not allow for commercial reuse (and the ND does not allow for "derivatives", or works that build upon your work) without permission. There may be times that this level of "protection" is needed, but beware! In order to publish your article, the publisher will have you sign a "license to publish". In the fine print, many publishers will have you sign back exclusive publishing, permissions, and profit-making rights to them. You will have again signed away your rights and will not be able to share your work on any commercial site, profit off your own work, or authorize derivative works. The Author Alliance has written in depth on this problem.
I accidentally chose not to publish open access because I was confused/unaware of the agreement. Is it too late?
No, it may not be too late. Many of our agreements allow you to retroactively make your article open access as long as it met the requirements and was submitted during the time of the agreement. Contact Susan Kendall, Head of Collection Strategies at the MSU Libraries, to ask about this.
Is there money for me to publish in journals by publishers that are not on the list?
No, unfortunately, there is no library fund to apply for covering open access publishing fees of journals with publishers that are not on our list. Our best chance of covering the most MSU publishing for our money is to negotiate agreements rather than pay full price for fees one by one. There may be some funds in departments or colleges, so check those as well.
Why does the MSU Libraries have agreements with some publishers and not others?
These agreements are fairly new, and some publishers do not yet offer them. Each one takes months of negotiations, so the MSU Libraries is adding them as we are able. Furthermore, we are choosing to do what we can afford. The more articles that MSU publishes with a publisher, the higher the price will be. So, we have a mix of agreements. Some with smaller publishers cost us very little. You are always welcome to let us know of your interest in a certain publisher. Contact Susan Kendall, Head of Collection Strategies, and/or your subject specialist librarian with suggestions or comments.