What is Open Access?
Open Access refers to the free online availability of scholarly research outputs, particularly research publications. Open Access can apply to journal articles, books, book chapters, conference papers, and other scholarly outputs.
Open Access does not necessarily mean that the publication can be used without restrictions. Reuse is determined by the applicable copyright and licence conditions. Open licences, such as Creative Commons licences, can clearly define how a publication may be reused, adapted, or shared.
Researchers should also consider publisher policies, funder requirements, copyright, and institutional requirements when making publications openly available.
Open journals can be searched in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) database.
Support for Open Access Publishing
The Academic Library of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice is a member of the CzechELib consortium . The CzechELib National Center ensures the purchase of key electronic resources for the entire research and educational community of the Czech Republic, takes care of their management, including usage statistics, and also supports publishing in the open access regime . The National Center falls under the National Technical Library and its construction was supported by the European Operational Program Research, Development, Education.
CzechELib is part of a project of the National Center for Information Support of Research, Development and Innovation, which is implemented with the support of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.
The center provides its members with:
- Support in the use of publication parts of contracts (Open Access agenda).
- Selection of electronic information resources (EIR) for central support.
- Implementation of tenders for EIR suppliers.
- Negotiating license agreements and purchasing EIR.
- Support to member institutions in making available and using acquired EIR.
- Support to member institutions for processing bibliometric analyses.
- Management and maintenance of resource usage statistics.
More details can be found on the website:
National Center for Information Support of Research, Development and Innovation
As a member of CzechElib, we have negotiated a discount or complete waiver of fees for publishing in the open access regime with several publishers. This applies only to corresponding authors from the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice.
Any fee (APC – Article Processing Charge) for publishing is paid by the Academic Library through a system of so-called tokens. Instructions from individual publishers for publishing authors can be found on the National Technical Library website.
Academic Library tokens for payment of publication fees at individual publishers in 2026.
Status as of September 30, 2026 – please note, the numbers are approximate and may change between updates!
- Springer Compact : tokens have already been exhausted
- Taylor & Francis : tokens have already been exhausted
- Wiley : tokens have already been exhausted
- Elsevier ScienceDirect : tokens have already been exhausted
- Oxford University Press : unlimited tokens available
Tips for authors: How to publish in Open Access mode
Before publishing, check that:
- Your institution is part of a transformation agreement with the publisher (can be found HERE )
- You are a corresponding author (use your institution's email address, others might be a problem for some publishers)
- The journal is on the list of authorized titles ( HERE you can download the list in .xlsx format), in addition, you can identify the type of journal according to THIS OVERVIEW .
- The article type and date of receipt are correct.
- Your institution has a free token to pay the APC fee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
The world's largest university press and the second oldest after Cambridge University Press – it was founded in 1586. It is part of the University of Oxford and has been publishing mainly scholarly works, musical scores and textbooks for the past 400 years. It is also the editor-in-chief of the Oxford English Dictionary. The current contract for publishing in Open Access mode is valid until 31 December 2028 .
The number of tokens for authors from the University of South Bohemia is not limited.
Articles of the type Research Article, Review Article, Brief Report, Case Report can be published.
All fully Open Access titles and hybrid titles are eligible, with the exception of the following journals, which are NOT eligible :
- Astronomy & Geophysics
- Children & Schools
- Critical Values
- European Heart Journal Supplements
- Health and Social Work
- Holocaust And Genocide Studies
- Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery
- Itnow
- JNCI Monographs
- Journal of American History
- Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
- Journal of the ICRU
- Music Theory Spectrum
- OAH Magazine of History
- Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics
- Reports of Patent, Design and Trade Mark Cases
- Shakespeare Quarterly
- Social Work
- Social Work Research
- The American Historical Review
- The Library
- The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory
- The Year's Work in English Studies
- Translational Animal Science
- Western Historical Quarterly
The publishing process is managed by the author himself on the website of the specific journal – detailed step-by-step instructions can be found HERE . When sending the manuscript, the corresponding author must use the institutional email (
The author will receive a welcome email with a unique link to the licensing and payment system (Author Services) and if the institution identifier (Ringgold ID) matches the authorized institution (University of South Bohemia), the author will receive a second email with instructions on how to use the free Open Access publishing option under the transformation agreement.
After the Open Access request is submitted, the OA administrator (Academic Library) has 7 days to approve the request. Given the unlimited use, the reason for rejection cannot be the exhaustion of the limit, but another circumstance - e.g. the author is no longer a member of the authorized institution.
Attention: if the OA request is rejected by the institution's administrator, the author must pay the publication fee (APC)!
Wiley Publishing
The American publishing house has been operating since 1807 and focuses on academic publishing and educational materials. The current contract with the publisher is valid until December 31, 2026 .
The number of tokens for JU is limited (see above), the principle "first come first served" applies. Before submitting an article, we recommend contacting the Academic Library of JU to inquire about the possibility of redeeming tokens.
Of course, it is possible to publish for free in journals that readers subscribe to (Subscription only journals).
Within Open Access, you can publish in hybrid titles, a list of which can be found HERE along with other information for authors. Articles of the type Research Article, Review Article, Commentary, Case Study, Data Article, Education, Lecture, Method and Protocol, Perspective, Practice and Policy, Rapid Publication, Letter, Short Communication, Technical Note can be published.
Detailed instructions for authors have been prepared by Wiley HERE .
If the publisher accepts the article for publication, the author is invited to manage the article in the Author Services system . First, he fills in all the information and pays attention to the designation of the Responsible Corresponding Author - there can be only one, he is responsible for signing the publication agreement and his affiliation will be used to determine the right to use the token within the transformation agreement. If the author has several affiliations, he must indicate which affiliation he wants to use for the payment of the APC. The administrator (Academic Library) is automatically notified of the request and approves the publication if the author's affiliation is in order and the tokens for the relevant period are not exhausted.
If the administrator rejects the request, the publisher will contact the author and offer the option to publish traditionally (free for the author, the article will be behind a paywall) or pay the APC directly if the article is to be published in Open Access mode.
You can find a video with instructions for publishing with Wiley (in English) HERE .
The " Journal Finder " tool for selecting the optimal journal for publication is now available on the publisher's website HERE . A brief guide is available HERE .
Taylor & Francis Publishing
The British publishing house, with a tradition dating back to 1798, is focused on publishing the highest quality scientific knowledge. The current contract is valid until December 31, 2029 .
The number of tokens for JU is limited (see above), the principle "first come first served" applies. Before submitting an article, we recommend contacting the Academic Library of JU to inquire about the possibility of redeeming tokens.
All hybrid titles (Open Select) are eligible under Open Access; a full list can be found on THIS PAGE .
Articles of the following types can be published: Article, Review, Research Article, Review Article, Report, Short Communication, Case Report, Note, Original Article, Guest Editorial.
On the publication portal, the author fills in the introductory information and sends his text. It is necessary to prove his affiliation to the University of Ljubljana - the university's email address. The administrator (AK JU) is notified of the request for a token and, after checking the author, assigns the token.
The publisher then communicates directly with the author via e-mail: they are asked to fill out an authorship agreement (APA), confirm the correctness of the metadata and authorship, and select a license. The article is then published.
You can find detailed step-by-step instructions on the CzechElib page HERE .
Springer Nature Publishing Group
Springer is part of the German-British house Springer Nature and is one of the world's leading publishers in the field of natural sciences. The current contract with CzechElib is valid until December 31, 2028 .
The number of tokens for JU is limited (see above), and the principle of "first come first served" also applies here. Before submitting an article, we recommend contacting the Academic Library of JU to inquire about the possibility of using tokens.
Authors of CzechElib member institutions can publish in hybrid titles in Open Access mode (ATTENTION, not in BioMed Central titles, Springer Open and Scientific Reports titles or Nature Communications).
It is possible to publish articles of the type Original Paper (Original Research, Original Article, Original Paper or Research Paper), Review Paper, Brief Communication, Continuing Education.
A list of titles where publishing is possible and detailed information for authors can be found on the Springer Nature website . A detailed tutorial on how to publish in Open Access mode can be found HERE .
The " Find a journal " tool for selecting the optimal journal for publishing is now available on the publisher's website HERE . A brief guide is available HERE .
On the publisher's website, the author fills in the introductory information and sends his text. After the article is accepted for publication, the author is asked by the publisher to sign a publishing agreement. Springer checks the author's affiliation with the institution (JU) based on the institutional email domain in the contact, the affiliation selected by the author (this is the most important parameter), and the IP address from which the contract is filled out. If the author's institution is verified, the article type is in the list of authorized types, and the journal is in the list of authorized titles, then the author is shown information about the transformation agreement and the author can decide whether to continue publishing in Open Access mode and submit the article for approval. The author must then sign a License to Publish . After the article is approved for token withdrawal by the administrator, the article is published in OA mode.
If the article is rejected by the administrator of the AK JU, the author has the option to pay the publishing fee himself or choose to publish the article in the classic mode (the article will be behind a paywall).
Elsevier Publishing House
The Dutch publishing house was founded in 1880, currently has more than 3,000 journals in its portfolio and its share in academic publishing is 16%. The contract with CzechElib is valid until December 31, 2030 .
The number of tokens for JU is limited (see above), and the principle of "first come first served" also applies here. Before submitting an article, we recommend contacting the Academic Library of JU with a question about the possibility of using tokens. In Open Access mode, you can publish in Core Hybrid titles (not in Gold and Cell Press titles), a list of which can be found HERE . It is possible to publish articles of the type Case Report, Data in Brief, Full-length Article, Microarticle, Original Software Publication, Protocol, Review Article, Replication Study, Short Communication and Short Survey.
After the article is accepted for publication, the "submitting corresponding" author will receive an email with a link to the so-called Post-Acceptance Author Journey (procedure for authors after the article is accepted). As part of this process, they will be asked to check and confirm their affiliation data - this is the most important thing to verify the author's legitimacy ("submitting corresponding"). We also recommend using an institutional email address. After selecting the open access option, the author must select a CC license in the Select your user license section , we always recommend using the CC BY license. After selecting the license, the author's procedure is complete. The institution will then verify whether the author meets the conditions for drawing benefits from the concluded transformation agreement and, upon approval, the author will receive an email with confirmation of the publication fee (APC) coverage. If the institution rejects the author's request, they will be able to publish traditionally (behind a "paywall") or in Open Access mode (by paying the APC fee).
On the publisher's page you will find a VIDEO INSTRUCTION and also a PDF INSTRUCTION .
The " Journal Finder " tool for selecting the optimal journal for publication is now available on the publisher's website HERE . A brief guide is available HERE .
