Open Access Publication Fund

TUM aims for a high Open Access publication rate and actively supports researchers in Open Access publishing. As a TUM member, you benefit from Publish & Read agreements with leading publishers and publication grants from the Open Access Publication Fund.

Overview

Relaunch of the Publication Fund

Recommendation for CC BY

Funding Conditions

Contact

Applying for a Publication Grant

Courses

Relaunch of the Publication Fund

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) has secured funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the "Open Access Publication Funding" program for the years 2025 to 2027. As a result, we are pleased to relaunch the TUM Open Access Publication Fund, which supports university members in publishing in Open Access journals. If the funding criteria [1] are met, authors can apply for a publication grant of up to 1,000 € per article.

Please also take advantage of the numerous Publish & Read agreements [2] that TUM has signed with leading publishers and academic societies. For articles covered by these agreements, the Open Access fees are handled centrally by the University Library, eliminating the need to apply for additional funding from the Open Access Publication Fund.

Your Open Access Publishing Options

Funding Conditions

For an article to be funded by the TUM Open Access Publication Fund, the following conditions must be met:

The corresponding author is a member of TUM and has listed TUM as their primary affiliation in the article. The TUM Publication Guidelines [5] must be followed.
The article is published in a purely Open Access journal that is not covered by TUM's Publish & Read agreements [2].
At the time of publication, the journal is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) [6].
The publication qualifies as a research article, meaning it presents scientific findings. Eligible types include research articles, original papers, review articles, and brief communications. Non-research articles, such as editorials, letters, and comments, are not eligible for funding.
The article is published under a CC BY license [7].
The publication date is on or after January 1, 2025.

Applying for a Publication Grant

For articles that meet the funding criteria [1], the Open Access Publication Fund provides a publication grant of up to 1,000 € per article. Please submit your funding application only after the article has been published. Use our online form for your request:

Submit Funding Application [8]

Invoice Processing and Reimbursement
The corresponding author or their respective institution (e.g., department, chair, or institute) must first pay the full Open Access fee invoiced by the publisher. The grant will then be reimbursed directly to the institution, not to individuals, due to tax regulations.

Recommendation for CC BY

For funding through the TUM Open Access Publication Fund, publication under a Creative Commons CC BY license is mandatory.

Additionally, we recommend publishing your Open Access articles in academic journals under a CC BY [7] whenever possible and avoiding the “Non Commercial” (NC) license component. For further information on the benefits of the CC BY license for scientific publications, please visit DEAL Consortium website [9]. A detailed legal overview is provided in the Practical Guide to Using Creative Commons Licenses [10].

Contact

For general inquiries about Open Access or support for your Open Access publications, please contact our Open Access team at open-access@ub.tum.de

We are happy to assist you.