FAQs

Information for contributing institutions

From 1 July 2023 through to the end of 2024 our institutional partners will be able to support the initiative. Institutional contributions are entirely voluntary. Each institution’s cost to participate is tiered and intended to enable institutions of all sizes to contribute.

At the end of the pilot, an impact report will be shared with participating institutional partners, acknowledging their support and inviting feedback on next steps.

To express your initial interest in becoming a contributing institution, or simply to find out more, please fill out this form.

What are the tax implications for my institution if I contribute?

If you would like to participate in this initiative, due to its charitable nature, any contribution should be treated as outside of the scope of UK VAT and your invoice will reflect this. This is on the understanding that if an institution makes a freely given payment to such an initiative and gains nothing in return, the payment does not fall within the scope of UK VAT. Since the tax rules will vary depending on individual circumstances and the territory to which you belong, we would recommend that you check your own specific tax position with your advisors or local tax authorities.

How will invoicing for COEI participation work?

While COEI participation can be tied to the billing of your transformative agreement, COEI participation is not connected to your transformative agreement. For transparency, Cambridge Open Equity Initiative participation must appear as a distinct line on an invoice. This can be an additional line item on the same invoice as a transformative agreement or a separate invoice entirely.

We are prioritising institutional participation from June 2023 – January 2024, though you are welcome to contribute anytime during the pilot. Your institutional contribution this year will support publishing in 2023 and should you choose to contribute again, in 2024, you will support publishing for the final year of the pilot.

Please advise if you need specific information to appear on your invoice and we will do our best to accommodate your request.

Information for benefitting authors and institutions

What countries are covered by the initiative?

The initiative covers over 5,000 institutions around the world, with over 100 countries eligible for fully funded open access publishing in all our gold and hybrid journals, at no direct cost to authors or their institutions.

How can I find out if I am eligible?

Authors based in low- and middle-income countries can check their eligibility using our eligibility checker tool. Eligible authors and institutions do not need to take action to participate; author affiliations will be captured at submission and author eligibility will be automatically determined through our standard publishing workflow.

Authors in countries not included in the COEI pilot but supported by the existing Research4Life scheme will continue to be supported by the Research4Life initiative, which waives open access publishing in Cambridge’s Gold OA journals. The eligible countries and the waiver details are below.

Group A countries Comoros, Ghana, Lebanon, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Moldova (Republic of), Nauru, St Helena, Timor-Leste, and Tokelau are entitled to a 100% discount.

Group B countries Botswana, Colombia, Egypt, Georgia, and Namibia are entitled to a 50% discount. Authors from these countries can apply for a full discretionary waiver via our discretionary waiver program. Please visit each journal's information page for application details.

When can authors benefit from the initiative?

Accepted articles will be eligible from 1st July 2023.

I am an independent scholar and not affiliated to an institution, am I eligible?

The initiative will automatically recognise eligibility for a defined list of institutions within qualifying countries. Unaffiliated authors from these countries, as well as those from organisations and institutions not listed in our eligibility checker tool, can also receive a waiver under the initiative using our waiver request form here.

Do I need to apply for funding?

No, eligible authors nor their institutions do not need to take action to participate. Author affiliations will be captured at submission and their eligibility automatically determined through our current workflow. 

The only exception to this is detailed above and concerns unaffiliated authors and those from organizations and institutions not automatically recognised by our eligibility checker tool.

If you have any questions, please contact oaqueries@cambridge.org 

Which Cambridge journals can I publish in through the initiative?

The initiative covers open access publishing in all of our gold and hybrid journals.

Original research including research articles, review articles, rapid communications, brief reports and case reports are covered by the initiative.

Do I need to select a specific license?

We offer authors a choice of Creative Commons licenses that they can apply to their work, which differ in terms of the rights they grant end users. All the licenses require that those redistributing or re-using the work should give appropriate credit and indicate if changes were made.

If you have further questions, please contact oaqueries@cambridge.org