Researchers affiliated with Western Carolina University are able to publish open access (OA) in select journals at no cost to themselves through an agreement between Wiley and the member institutions of the Carolina Consortium. Corresponding authors can choose from 1,300+ hybrid (i.e., containing both open access and subscription content) and 500+ gold OA (i.e., containing only open access content) journals in which to publish research and review articles.
This page includes a list of the journals that qualify for covered article processing charges (APCs), additional information about the deal, and instructions for taking advantage of this agreement. If you have additional questions, please contact Scottie Kapel, Scholarly Communications Librarian, at skapel@wcu.edu.
Refer to the attached spreadsheets for a list of all journals that qualify for covered APCs.
Under the terms of the agreement with Wiley, APCs for hybrid journals and gold OA journals will handled differently.
Hybrid journals
There is no limit on the number of APCs that will be covered for WCU-affiliated authors publishing OA in Wiley's hybrid journals.
Gold OA journals
APCs for articles published in Wiley's gold OA journals will be charged against a deposit account shared by all participating institutions. Once the deposit account funds are depleted, the author will become responsible for gold OA journal APCs.
For more detailed instructions with screenshots, follow the link below.
For 2025, the terms of our agreement with Wiley have changed. There is no limit on the number of APCs that will be covered for WCU-affiliated authors publishing OA in Wiley's hybrid journals. APCs for articles published in Wiley's gold OA journals will be charged against a deposit account shared by all participating institutions. Once the deposit account funds are depleted, the author will become responsible for gold OA journal APCs.
In years past, the participating institutions received a shared pool of APC vouchers available on a first come, first served basis and that were applied to OA articles published in both hybrid and gold OA journals. The change to our current model expands the ability for WCU-affiliated authors to publish open access with no charge.
The corresponding author will see a message indicating that the gold OA deposit account has been depleted when they go through the open access selection process.
The benefits of publishing open access include increased visibility, compliance with funding mandates, and more freedom to share your published research through a variety of platforms (e.g., institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal websites, etc.). Larger benefits include providing equitable access to scholarly output.
Authors who take advantage of this deal will retain copyright of their article. Articles will be published gold open access and under a Creative Commons license. Authors will be able to add the version of record (i.e., the final article with publisher formatting) to any website or repository immediately upon publication. Consider depositing your published article to WCU's institutional repository to increase the reach of your research! Contact Scottie Kapel, skapel@wcu.edu, for more information.
Please reach out to Scottie Kapel, skapel@wcu.edu.