Research Newsletter - Issue 109: Information and Updates
Please click on the headings below for further detail:
An Article Processing Charge (APC) is a one-off payment to a publisher to make an article Gold Open Access (immediately available without subscription or embargo).
In order to facilitate accurate internal and sectoral reporting on APC’s paid outside of the DCU Library/IReL publisher agreements, we have set up a dedicated APC code - 30115.
We would ask that the relevant faculty buyers/requisitioners please do the following:
- When processing APC expenditure against your subcost centre, please include this APC code in the item entry - whether that occurs via Purchase Order generation (select the new APC category product code 30115) or as part of a Core Expenses claim (select the code from the Gl Expense dropdown list).
- Provide the name of the journal publisher as additional descriptive text in the Purchase Order or Core Expenses claim.
This dedicated code and process typically applies when an IReL agreement does not cover the journal concerned, or when IReL funds are exhausted and other project funds are being utilised.
DCU Library/IReL publisher agreements are in the process of being confirmed for 2026, providing continued coverage for authors seeking to publish open access. Publishers with renewed agreements will have a fresh allocation of APC ‘credits’ for any articles with a 2026 date of acceptance. This includes articles submitted for consideration in late 2025 but accepted in 2026, post peer review.
Allocations for the following publishers are already confirmed to renew from 1st January 2026:
- American Physical Society
- ASME
- Annual Reviews
- BMJ
- Elsevier
- Emerald
- IEEE
- Institute of Physics
- Microbiology Society
- Optica Publishing Group
- Oxford UP
- PLOS
- Rockefeller UP
- Royal Irish Academy
- Royal Society
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Sage
- SCOAP3
- Springer
- Taylor & Francis
- Wiley
This accounts for 21 of the 27 publishers from 2025 with the remaining subject to confirmation from IReL.
Please check the open access page of our Open Research website for updates on all IReL agreements. Open Research Librarian Liam O'Dwyer can assist with any queries for DCU authors relating to open access publishing.
On the 11th December, the European Commission published its plans for funding research and innovation in the final two years of the current Horizon Europe programme, 2026-27.
The Pillar I work programme for MSCA calls, and Pillar II work programmes for all thematic clusters, the New European Bauhaus and EU Missions can be found on the Horizon Europe work programmes webpage.
Calls will also be added to the Funding and Tenders Portal in due course.
If you have not already done so but are interested in research funding opportunities within Horizon Europe, please sign up to the Horizon Support Team’s monthly newsletter, by completing this form. Previous versions of the newsletter are also available directly from the HorizonEurope.ie website. Each newsletter contains updates from National Contact Points for various thematic clusters and programmes, as well as general relevant updates from the Commission and in relation to Horizon Europe support grants, and a list of upcoming events which might be of interest.