MDPI

The GFZ and PIK have participated in a consortial Open Access framework agreement negotiated by ZB MED with the publisher MDPI since 2025.

Duration: 01/01/2025 – 31/12/2026

Elements of the agreement

As part of the consortial Open Access framework agreement, GFZ and PIK employees receive a 30% discount on the Article Processing Charges (APCs) incurred by authors when publishing in the publisher's journals.

Which requirements must be fulfilled?

The "corresponding author" must be from the GFZ or PIK and thus the respective institution must also be listed as an affiliation.

What you need to consider?

Please use the institution's email address for communication with the publisher and when submitting the manuscript.

When submitting the manuscript, please select your institution as affiliation.

The APCs are billed by the library as part of a collective invoice. We will then get in touch with you.

Invoicing and cost coverage

The publication costs are covered by the library as part of a collective invoice. Authors are not invoiced individually for each article (exceptions see below).

There may be different internal regulations in the institutions regarding the subsequent coverage of costs by the administration. These are explained in more detail below.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the library staff.

In consultation with the sections, the APCs are transferred to the respective Account Assignment Elements of the section budgets or third-party funded projects. Upon publication of an article, the library contacts the corresponding author or his/her secretariat and asks for notification of the cost center for further accounting.

Publications in genuine Open Access journals that can only be financed from section budget funds can be supported from the OA budget. The remaining amount must be financed from section funds.

More information on publication costs and the Open Access publication fund and its requirements can be found on the GFZ intranet: https://intranet.gfz.de/en/for-researchers/publishing/publication-costs

The publication costs incurred for Gold Open Access publications (APCs) are allocated to the research departments. Wherever possible, third-party funds should be given preference.

Publications in genuine Open Access journals that can only be financed from section budget funds can be supported from the OA budget (see PIK intranet: www.pik-potsdam.de/en/output/publications/open-access-budget).