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Cambridge funding guidelines for open access charges 

The University of Cambridge supports its researchers with the cost of publishing gold open access by assisting with article processing charges in certain circumstances where there is no compliant green open access route that can be used as an alternative to paying for gold open access. The University's Self-Archiving Policy provides a compliant green route in most cases for subscription-based journal publishing (i.e. journals that are subscription-based, but offer a choice to publish open access provided an article processing charge is paid). Neither the block grants nor institutional open access fund can be used to pay for other publishing charges, such as colour charges or page charges. 

The University is able to do this via two routes; block grants from four block grant providers; British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Wellcome Trust and UKRI (AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC, EPSRC, NERC, STFC), and an institutional open access fund for researchers who have no access to any funds with which to pay open access charges. There is more information on accessing one of the University's block grants and using the University's Institutional Fund on our website. 

Researchers are advised to seek advice on funding eligibility before agreeing to pay an invoice, by contacting the Open Access Team. Researchers are also asked to upload their accepted manuscript upon acceptance by uploading it via Symplectic Elements.

In addition to the support provided for the payment of individual article processing charges outlined above, the University also provides support for open access publishing via our many transitional deals