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Publication Funds

Funding for book publications will resume from 15 April 2026.

Due to commitments to the DFG under the ‘Open Access Publication Funding’ programme and the tight budgetary situation, a phased allocation of funds is necessary.

When allocating funds, priority will be given to publications from DFG-funded projects. Further applications may also be funded, depending on the remaining budget. Applications will continue to be processed and approved in the order in which they are received in full.

We ask for your understanding that, due to limited funds, it may not be possible to consider all applications this year. The publication fund for books will be closed as soon as the available funds have been exhausted. We will inform you of any developments on this page as necessary.

This funding enables the co-financing of publication costs (Book Processing Charges, BPCs) for previously unpublished open access monographs and edited volumes.

The funding was established using budgetary resources from Freie Universität Berlin. The publication fund is administered by the University Library. Since 2023, publications arising from DFG projects have been primarily funded through grants from the DFG’s ‘Open Access Publication Funding’ programme. The decision on whether to award funding in individual cases rests with the University Library.

The publication includes an acknowledgement describing the funding of Freie Universität Berlin: "This publication was financed in part by the open access fund for books of Freie Universität Berlin.".

Funding Conditions
  • Funding will be granted only if a Freie Universität member is responsible for the settlement of the fee. The author or editor must be a Freie Universität member at the time when payment is made (§ 43 Berliner Hochschulgesetz).
  • The FU affiliation of the author must be clearly identifiable in the publication.
  • Applicants should have registered with ORCID and should have an ORCID iD.
  • Refundable are Open-access monographs and edited volumes that have not been published previously.
  • One open access monograph or one edited volume per person can be funded per year.
Funding
  • Publication costs will be reimbursed up to the maximum of 5.000 EUR (incl. VAT).
  • The combination of funding with other sources is possible.
  • The funding approval is valid for a period of 12 months. If the publication has not been published within that period, the applicant will have to submit a new application.
  • Excellent theses of the Freie Universität Berlin are eligible for funding, they can be funded up to a maximum amount of EUR 2.500 (incl. VAT). Other Theses are not eligible for funding. 
  • The funding is strictly available for Open Access publishing cost. Support for the cost of printing or typesetting is not available.
 Open Access
  • In order to receive funding, all parts of the submitted publication must be openly accessible free of charge immediately and completely as soon as they are published.
  • The publication must be published under a creative commons license (preferably the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY).
  • All supported monographs and edited volumes will also be made available worldwide through Refubium, the Freie Universität institutional repository.
Publisher
  • Prior to publication, the work has to undergo a quality-assurance process organized by the publisher (e.g., board of editors or reviewers) in accordance with the standards in the academic discipline in question.
  • Funding will be granted only if the publisher provides transparent calculation for the invoiced open-access costs. Open Access Publication Costs must be shown separately on the invoice.
  • The publisher is listed as an open-access publisher, e.g. in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) or as member of Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA).
Submit a funding application Consulting

We would be happy to review your publishing contract in advance. If you have specific questions, please contact edocs@ub.fu-berlin.de

Please note: The Publication Fund is intended to cover the costs of journal articles submitted to publishers with whom the University Library has not concluded a separate agreement. Therefore, please inform yourself about the funding options that Freie Universität Berlin has already concluded with publishers.

Funding conditions

Freie Universität Berlin has set the following conditions for the funding of publication fees:

  1. Publication fees can only be paid if they do not exceed the maximum amount of 2000,00 EUR excl. VAT per article. This corresponds to an invoice amount of max. 2380,00 EUR incl. taxes. Higher invoice amounts cannot be paid via the FU Open Access Publication Fund, not even on a pro-rata basis or as a split invoice.
  2. Up to two OA journal articles per person can be funded per year.
  3. Only articles for which members of Freie Universität Berlin are responsible for paying the publication fees as "Submitting" or "Corresponding Author" will be funded.
  4. Applicants must not be able to pay the publication costs from third-party funds (i.e. within the framework of DFG, BMBF, EU projects or other projects funded by third parties).
  5. The article must be published in a purely Open Access journal, i.e. all articles in the journal must be accessible worldwide free of charge in their entirety without a subscription fee immediately upon publication. The article must be published under an open license (such as a Creative Commons license - preferably CC BY).
  6. The OA journal in which the article is published must have appropriate, clearly documented quality assurance strategies (i.e. especially peer review processes).

  7. Applicants should have registered with ORCID and should have an ORCID iD.

Not eligible are:

  1. Publications in hybrid journals, i.e. articles made available in subscription-based journals with paid open access options.
  2. Articles in so-called mirror journals/sister journals, i.e. Open Access offshoots of subscription-based journals. Exceptions apply to publications, for example, within the framework of the DEAL agreements with Wiley and Springer Nature.
  3. Page Charges, Colour Charges and Submission Fees.

Scope of application:
Funding conditions apply from 01 January 2023. Limited funds are available for the publication fund. If it is foreseeable that the fund will be exhausted, the funding conditions may be changed. Should this be the case, you will find the relevant information on this page. The final decision on funding lies with the University Library.

How to submit an application

Please check whether the open-access journal to which you submit your article fulfills the conditions for funding. If your publication meets the criteria please proceed as follows:

You have submitted your manuscript to the publisher

Please fill in the web-form for direct payment. Additionally send us an e-mail with the publisher's price quote to edocs@ub.fu-berlin.de.

We will let you know as soon as possible whether we can cover the cost of your article. If you have any questions, please contact us at edocs@ub.fu-berlin.de. 

In your article, please mention the provision of funding through the Freie Universität Berlin. Our suggestion:
Articles in English: Supported by Open Access Funds of Freie Universität Berlin.
Articles in German: Gefördert aus Open-Access-Mitteln der Freien Universität Berlin.

After the publisher’s invoice has been paid by the University Library, you will receive a message from the Institutional Repository Editorial Team. As soon as your article is published, it will also be made available worldwide through the institutional repository Refubium. For further information please see our FAQ.