Authors who need to comply with U.S. federal funder requirements for immediate public access have multiple publishing options in ACS journals. Following recent engagements with NIH, we’re confident all options may be expensed against grants, including the article development charge (ADC), a lower-cost alternative to paying a full article publishing charge (APC).
Authors whose work receives support from U.S. federal funders, like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are now required to ensure their accepted manuscripts are accessible through a public repository.
Regardless of your funder, you can publish confidently with ACS knowing we’ve got you covered through institutional agreements and grant-allowable options.
Most U.S. authors are fully covered by institutional agreements
All ACS institutional open access agreements offer the ability to immediately post your accepted manuscript in a public repository without any cost to the author. Most authors who need to comply with these new requirements are already covered by institutional open access agreements with ACS.
These agreements, typically administered through your library, provide you with access to read ACS Journals and publish open access in them, at no cost to you.
Click here to find out if you are covered and how to take advantage of your library’s agreement.
We offer options for authors who aren’t covered by institutional agreements
These options ensure authors have the freedom to publish in the journal of their choice while simultaneously meeting funder requirements.
- Choose Gold Open Access: Publish full open access and pay an article publishing charge (APC) to make the Version of Record freely available and comply with public access policies.
- Choose Green Open Access: Publish zero-embargo green open access and pay an article development charge (ADC) when publishing in most hybrid ACS journals—allows authors to comply at roughly half the cost of an APC by depositing their accepted manuscript.
Following recent conversations with the NIH, we’re confident that both options meet the definition of publishing costs that can be expensed against a grant.
The ADC helps grant dollars go further
Most publishers require authors to publish gold open access and pay an APC to make their accepted manuscript publicly available without an embargo.
The ADC option helps by providing the same compliance with funder requirements at a lower cost.
Introduced on October 1, 2023, the ADC enables immediate access to the accepted manuscript across all ACS hybrid journals at roughly half the cost of an APC—$2,500 or less, depending on available discounts—because it only covers our publication costs through acceptance to reflect the value added to the accepted manuscript.
Support sustainable, high-quality publishing
Like an APC, the ADC covers the cost of publishing services but only those incurred from submission through final acceptance. For ACS Publications, this forms the backbone of integrity and represents just over half of the total cost of publishing an article.
The ADC covers things such as:
- Management of peer-review infrastructure
- Operation and enhancement of submission systems
- Author support and editorial guidance
- Data verification and fraud detection
- Development and enablement of a trusted global editor and peer review community
How the ADC option meets funder requirements
Like the APC, the ADC is due only after acceptance. If an article is not accepted, there is no charge.
Because the ADC covers core publication services (not licensing or deposit fees), authors funded by U.S. federal funding agencies like the NIH can use grant funds to pay it.
With the ADC option, the version of record is published under subscription access and authors can immediately deposit the accepted manuscript in any repository. This includes repositories like PubMed Central and NSF PAR. Combined with public access to underlying research data, this approach meets NIH and other federal funders’ requirements for immediate public access.
Authors should review funder policies (such as NIH Guidance on Publication Costs) to confirm eligibility and submission guidelines for any expenses.