Financial support under the DEAL contracts

We would like to draw your attention to an important change:


The Presidium of the RPTU has passed a resolution by which corresponding authors who submit a publication under the DEAL contracts* (Gold or Hybrid) as a member of the RPTU are to contribute to the financing of the publication costs. The co-financing share is generally 700 euros per publication (exceptions apply below, where the personal contribution is higher).


The financing model will be implemented this year and applies to submissions (submission date) from 01.05.2025.

* There is a DEAL contract with each of the publishers Elsevier, Springer Nature and Wiley. In the case of Springer Nature, this agreement covers Springer journals and some Nature journals. Another contract (outside DEAL) covers other Nature journals (see here).

Conditions for publication fees

The collection of funds takes place after the central settlement of the publishers with the University Library.

In the case of hybrid articles, the University Library is only billed once in the summer of the following year. The University Library will therefore collect the co-financing share approximately one year later. 

Fees for Gold publications are invoiced on a quarterly basis.

The exact workflow is worked out by the University Library together with the administration. You will be informed about the collection modalities in good time.

Exceptions apply in the following cases where the personal contribution is higher:

Opt-outarticles: If the corresponding author does not choose the Open Access option, the UB will still be charged the full Open Access fees. In these cases, the University Library will pass on the full costs to the author (approx. €2,900).

Articles in mirrorjournals: The University Library contributes 50% of the costs incurred (approx. €1,375).

Articles with a small number of pages (less than five pages, less than 20,000 characters): Here too, 50% of the costs incurred (approx. €1,400) are passed on to the authors. An exception with a lower limit of 15,000 characters can be made if the publishers do not allow contributions of more than 20,000 characters.

As before, these costs will not be covered and must be borne by the authors themselves.

You can find out which journals are affected by the changes in the title lists in the publisher entries.

DEAL Elsevier

Term until 31.12.2028

Read-only access to almost the entire Elsevier journal portfolio, including the Cell Press and The Lancet range of titles.

Publication of specialist articles with an open access component.

  • OA publications in (hybrid) subscription journals

If the corresponding author belongs to RPTU, the "Elsevier Core Hybrid" option should be selected. We are also charged for closed access. Invoices are sent centrally to the University Library.

  • OA publications in pure Gold OA journals

These are pure Open Access journals in which all articles are published exclusively Open Access. The publisher grants a 20 percent discount on the regular publication charges (APC) for Fully Gold Elsevier articles. Gold Lancet and Cell Press articles receive a 15% discount on the regular publication fees.

Invoices are sent centrally to the University Library.

Please note that other print-based publication fees are not covered by DEAL (e.g. fees for excess length, color illustrations, etc.) [Note: Project DEAL takes the position that these fees are no longer appropriate in the digital age, which is why they are not part of the DEAL negotiations].

DEAL Springer Nature

Term until 31.12.2028

Read-only access to almost the entire Springer Nature journal portfolio (more than 2,200 hybrid journals and more than 400 pure Open Access journals).

Publication of specialist articles with an open access component. Non-research articles can be published free of charge.

  • OA publications in (hybrid) subscription journals (Springer Open Choice)
    If the corresponding author belongs to RPTU, the "Online Open" option should be selected. We are also charged for closed access. Invoices are sent centrally to the university library.
  • OA publications in pure Gold OA journals
    These are pure Open Access journals in which all articles are published exclusively Open Access. The publisher grants a discount of 20 percent on the regular publication charges (APC). Invoices are sent centrally to the University Library.
    Article types considered: Research Articles (= Original Paper, Review Paper, Brief Communication)

Author information from Springer Nature

The identification parameters at Springer are

  1. the institution you have chosen (RPTU),
  2. the domain of the e-mail address you use (uni-kl.de, uni-landau.de, rptu.de) and
  3. the identification of an IP address at RPTU

Please note that other print-based publication fees are not covered by DEAL (e.g. fees for excess length, color illustrations, etc.) [Note: Project DEAL takes the position that these fees are no longer appropriate in the digital age, which is why they are not part of the DEAL negotiations].

DEAL Wiley

Term until 31.12.2028

Read-only access to almost all journal titles published by Wiley (currently approx. 1,900 journal titles).

Publication of articles with an Open Access component and in OA-only journals. Please note that only primary research or review articles are covered by the agreement.

  • OA publications in (hybrid) subscription journals (Wiley Online Open)
    If the corresponding author belongs to RPTU, the "Online Open" option should be selected. We are also charged for closed access. Invoices are sent centrally to the university library.
  • OA publications in pure Gold OA journalsTheseare pure Open Access journals in which all articles are published exclusively Open Access. The publisher grants a discount of 20 percent on the regular publication charges (APC). Invoices are sent centrally to the University Library.

Workflow OnlineOpen
Workflow Open Access
Instructions for converting opt-out publications to Open Access at Wiley

Hindawi journals: Authors submit their manuscript to Hindawi via the Phenom system. You indicate your affiliation when submitting the manuscript. Only one corresponding author can be specified in Phenom. Please note that only this step triggers eligibility for funding. This means that the author who is eligible for funding must submit and select the affiliation correctly.

Please note that other print-based publication fees are not covered by DEAL (e.g. fees for excess length, color illustrations, etc.) [Note: Project DEAL takes the position that these fees are no longer appropriate in the digital age, which is why they are not part of the DEAL negotiations].