Social Geography

All Copernicus GmbH open-access journals provide 10% of the previous year's page budget to be assigned to authors lacking support of funds. Before applying for a waiver, all authors are requested to explore funding options at their own university. Some research funders have established general APC funding schemes, like the Research Council UK. There, a block of funding has generally been allocated to each university to cover open-access publication costs associated with Research-Council-funded grants and research students. However, if the authors are not eligible for any financial support scheme, they are asked to contact Copernicus Publications Editorial Support (editorial@copernicus.org) after access review prior to publication of their paper in the discussion forum to apply for a partial or full waiver. Applications should state why the author (or any of the co-authors) cannot pay the charges. Applications by students or post-doctoral researchers also require a brief statement from their supervisor or group leader. Applications will be granted if supported by the handling editor and approved by the chief editors. In special cases, such as long review manuscripts, the authors may contact the chief editors prior to manuscript submission.

If the first author is affiliated to one of the following research centres of the Helmholtz Association, the authors will not be invoiced directly. The Article processing charges will be settled automatically between Copernicus Publications and the Helmholtz Centres. Contact your local library to learn more about the internal procedure at your centre:

- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron – DESY (valid for submissions after 1 May 2012)
- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt – DLR (valid for submissions after 1 November 2012)
- Forschungszentrum Jülich (valid for submissions after 1 January 2012)
- German Research Centre for Geosciences – GFZ (valid for submissions after 1 January 2012)
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ (valid for submissions after 1 January 2012)
- Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel – GEOMAR (valid for submissions after 1 August 2012)
- Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research – AWI (valid for submissions after 1 January 2016)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf – HZDR (valid for submissions after 1 October 2012)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht – HZG (valid for submissions after 1 January 2013)
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology – KIT (valid for submissions after 1 May 2012)

If the first author is affiliated to one of the research units of the Max Planck Society, the article processing charges for category 1 and 2 papers will be settled automatically between Copernicus Publications and the Max Planck Society, whereas for category 3 and 4 papers only the respective differences to categories 1 or 2 have to be paid by the authors. This arrangement is valid for any submission after 1 January 2008 (receipt of electronic manuscript files).

The institutional agreement with the SUB (Niedersächsische Staat- und Universitätsbibliothek) covers papers with article processing charges (APCs) up to €2,000 (gross) if the corresponding author of the paper is affiliated to the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. The APCs will then be settled directly between Copernicus Publications and the SUB. If APCs exceed €2,000 (gross), SUB will cover only half of the costs. The arrangement is valid for submissions after 1 January 2016 (receipt of electronic manuscript files).

The following is a list of universities that are supported by the DFG Programme "Open Access Publizieren" and therefore provide funds for open-access publications. Please check whether your institution supports the costs for open-access publishing.

- Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
- Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
- Freie Universität Berlin
- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover
- Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
- Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
- Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen
- Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg
- Ruhr Universität Bochum
- Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
- Technische Universität Hamburg Harburg
- TU Chemnitz
- TU Clausthal-Zellerfeld
- TU Dresden
- TU Ilmenau
- Universität Bayreuth
- Universität Bielefeld
- Universität Duisburg-Essen
- Universität Kassel
- Universität Konstanz
- Universität Leipzig
- Universität Regensburg
- Universität Stuttgart
- Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Horizon 2020 is the EU Research and Innovation programme. All projects receiving Horizon 2020 funding will have the obligation to make sure any peer-reviewed journal article they publish is openly accessible, free of charge. For projects funded through the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), publication fees are eligible for reimbursement. Details can be found in the FP7 model Grant Agreement (article II.16.4).

The German Research Foundation DFG supports publication charges with €750 per year. This support can also be accumulated over the 3-year period of funding. Please see the bulletin Merkblatt für Anträge auf Sachbeihilfe. Authors have to apply for this.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) covers up to €5,000 publication charges for each NWO-funded research project. Applications have to be made by the project leaders. For further information please visit the NWO website.

The Volkswagen Foundation covers publication costs for funded projects. Please see the bulletin Bewilligungsgrundsätze.