Publication Fund for Articles & Book Chapters
Do you have to pay publication fees for your open access article in a journal or your open access book chapter in an edited volume?
Apply for funding from the University of Bonn Publication Fund!
Important notice regarding the funding limit from 1 September 2026
For applications submitted on or after September 1, 2026, the maximum funding available from the Publication Fund is €1,000 per publication.
If the eligible publication costs exceed this amount, you must indicate in the application form how the remaining costs will be covered.
How can I apply for funding?
Who and what is eligible for funding?
Who is eligible to apply?
Members of the University of Bonn or University Hospital Bonn (UKB) are eligible to apply if they are the corresponding author and state the University of Bonn or UKB as their primary affiliation. Students and early-career researchers in particular are encouraged to apply.
What is not eligible for funding?
Funding is not available for non-research articles, mirror journals, additional charges (e.g. submission charges, page charges, or colour charges), opt-out articles, book chapters or conference papers for which other funding is available, or publications receiving duplicate funding (preprints).
Funding Criteria
For applications submitted on or after September 1, 2026, a maximum of €1,000 per publication is available. If the eligible publication costs exceed this amount, you must indicate in the application form how the remaining costs will be covered.
We reserve the approved amount for three months. If you have not received an invoice by then, please contact us and we will extend the reservation for another three months. Please inform us in good time of any delays or if your publication is rejected; otherwise, the reserved funds will be released.
Publications funded by the Publication Fund must include the following acknowledgement:
"This publication was supported by the Open Access Publication Fund of the University of Bonn."
Further information on affiliations and funding requirements can be found in the University of Bonn guidelines.
The funded publication must be published under a Creative Commons licence.
You can find more information about Creative Commons licences here.
How does the payment process work?
The full publication costs are initially invoiced centrally to the Bonn University and State Library (ULB), which pays the invoice. You do not need to ask the publisher to split the invoice.
The Publication Fund covers up to €1,000 of the eligible publication costs. If the eligible costs exceed this amount, the remaining balance will subsequently be charged internally to the PSP element (internal cost element) specified in the application form.
Before submitting your application, please make sure that you have obtained approval from the person responsible for the specified PSP element (internal cost element) to cover the remaining balance.
Please note for invoices from abroad: If the publisher's invoice shows 0% VAT, German VAT may additionally become due under the reverse charge procedure. The total amount to be recorded internally may therefore be higher than the amount shown on the publisher's invoice. When calculating the required funds on your WBS element, please allow for an additional 19% VAT as a precaution.
Invoicing Requirements
Please provide the publisher with the following requirements to avoid subsequent corrections to the invoice:
The invoice must contain the following billing address:
Universität Bonn
Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Bonn
Zeitschriftenmanagement / Open-Access-Team
Regina-Pacis-Weg 3
53113 Bonn
The billing address must not include the name of your institute, department, or any other organizational unit.
The payment term must be at least 30 days.
Due to administrative processing requirements, it often takes at least 30 days for the University Cashier's Office to process an invoice for payment. Please inform the publisher accordingly and check the payment term stated on the invoice. Please only forward the invoice to us once the payment term is correct.
For invoices issued in Germany: The invoice must show the gross amount, VAT rate, and VAT amount.
For invoices issued outside Germany (both EU and non-EU countries): The invoice must show the net amount and include both the University of Bonn's VAT identification number (DE 122119125) and the publisher's VAT identification number.