Green open access

Authors who publish a non-open access article in ACS Publications’ hybrid journals can deposit their accepted manuscript in a repository with a 12-month embargo free of charge.

If your funder or institution requires you to follow a zero-embargo green open access policy, then you may already have access to an ACS Publications read and green agreement. You can check if you are covered using our institutional lookup tool.

If you are not covered by an institutional OA agreement, find out how to make your work available OA using grant or personal funds.

Depositing your accepted manuscript with an ACS read and green agreement

Your institution’s read and green agreement with ACS Publications allows you to immediately self-archive your manuscript in a repository (such as PubMed Central, PAGES, or HAL) when it has been accepted for publication in any of our hybrid journals. The instructions below walk you through the process of completing the relevant Journal Publishing Agreement.

Please note: this information only applies to submitting corresponding authors covered by an active ACS read and green agreement. There is no fee for authors to participate in this program. The dedicated information page for your institution’s agreement will provide more details.

Step 1

Submit your article to the ACS journal of your choice, making sure you are the submitting corresponding author.

Step 2

Ensure your institution affiliation is correct on your profile in the ACS Publishing Center.

Step 3

Check that your affiliation is stated in the body of the manuscript as the corresponding author’s affiliation.

Step 4

When your manuscript has been accepted for publication, you will be asked if you wish to participate in your institution’s read and green agreement through completion of the Journal Publishing Agreement. Authors selecting the option to retain copyright will be permitted to deposit their accepted manuscript in a repository with no embargo period.

Step 5

Once the Journal Publishing Agreement has been signed, you may upload your accepted manuscript to the repository of your choice. Your institution and/or research funder may specify the repository to use.

Please note: You are not required to purchase open access to the final article in order to deposit your accepted manuscript, but you must deposit the manuscript yourself. If you do choose to purchase open access for the final article, it will automatically be submitted to PubMed Central (and Europe PMC) by ACS upon publication.

Gold open access

The simplest way to publish gold OA with ACS Publications is through an institutional OA agreement. Over 1700 institutions around the world have access to these agreements. You can check to see if yours in included using our lookup tool. Instructions for publishing under an institutional OA agreement are provided here.

Publishing through an institutional OA agreement

Please note: this information only applies to submitting corresponding authors covered by an active ACS read and publish agreement. The dedicated information page for your institution’s agreement will provide more detail about which ACS Publications journals are included.

Step 1

Submit your article to the ACS journal of your choice, making sure you are the submitting corresponding author.

Step 2

Ensure your institution affiliation is correct on your profile in the ACS Publishing Center.

Step 3

Check that your affiliation is stated in the body of the manuscript as the corresponding author’s affiliation.

Step 4

When your manuscript has been accepted for publication, you will be automatically prompted with the option to publish open access under your institution’s agreement.

Step 5

Note: Authors publishing in a gold (fully open access) journal will not be required to complete this step.
Confirm that “Yes, I wish to publish open access as per the agreement” is checked, and complete the Journal Publishing Agreement.

Step 6

There are two possibilities at this point: if your institution requires you to complete a checkout process via our ecommerce partner, Copyright Clearance Center Rightslink®, you will be taken to their system (see steps 7-11). If not, your institution will now be alerted to your open access funding request. If the request is approved, your article will be made immediately available as open access upon publication under the relevant Creative Commons license. There are no charges to pay and no further action required by either you or your institution.

Step 7

If you are required to apply for funding, you’ll be presented with an “Order Open Access” button after completing the Journal Publishing Agreement. Click this button to proceed.

Step 8

A new window will open, displaying your manuscript information in the Copyright Clearance Center RightsLink® system. Click on the “Seek Funding” button, then “Next”.

Step 9

Select your Creative Commons license type (please confirm that your chosen license type is compliant with your research funder and/or institution’s open access policies before continuing). The ‘Total Charges’ value should read $0, indicating that the costs will be covered by your institution. Click “Next”.

Step 10

Provide your name and email address. These will be used by your institution to confirm that you are eligible to claim open access publishing charges under the agreement. Click “Next” to review your order.

Step 11

Check that your organization is correct, and confirm that the ‘Total Due’ value is $0. Check the consent boxes, and finally click the “Submit Request” button. Your institution will be alerted of your request and, if your funding request is approved, your article will be published as ACS open access under your chosen Creative Commons license. There are no charges to pay and no further action required by either you or your institution.

Automatic article deposit

Authors who elect to publish open access will automatically have their final published article sent for deposit in PubMed Central. Please note all contents accepted for US PubMed Central are automatically mirrored on Europe PMC. Authors publishing open access under this agreement are also free to manually deposit their accepted manuscript in their institutional and/or research funder’s designated open access repository.