Author pays? More and more scholarly journals do not sell subscriptions but give away the content open access, i.e. for free. Instead the publishers have the authors pay to publish.
Starting in 2010, Bremen University has been supporting Open Access publishing and is offering funding for "Article Processing Charges" or "Publication Fees" in Open Access publications to its members.
As the initial funding was provided by the German Research Foundation (DFG) the DFG's rules for funding continue to apply:
A number of publishers (Copernicus Publications, BioMed Central, Frontiers) charge their publication costs directly to SuUB Bremen, i.e. the submitting author will not receive an invoice. With other platforms (e.g. PLOS, Springer Nature Open Research, Hindawi) we ask authors to forward the original bill to us.
We will check the invoice and effect payment to the publisher. For authors to be on the safe side we strongly recommend contacting SuUB before submission to publishers not listed here or if in doubt, - we will check whether the publisher or journal is are in agreement with funding guidelines and then give a commitment to cover the costs.
If you are a member member of the University of Bremen, the Bremen University of Applied Sciences, the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven or University of the Arts Bremen, you have various options for financing these costs.
Online application for funding of an open access publication