v2026.1CASRAI Dictionary 1,610 entries across 24 domains · CC-BY 4.01,610 entries · CC-BY 4.0

Dictionary termTrack EStablev2026.2

APC reimbursement (funder)

The mechanism by which a research funder repays an article processing charge (APC) paid by an author or institution, either directly or via an institutional block grant, in support of open access publication of grant-supported research.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

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Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A UK university administers the UKRI Open Access Block Grant, paying APCs on behalf of grant-funded authors within scope.
Is an instance
A researcher submits an APC reimbursement claim against their NIH grant's publication budget.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A subscription payment to a journal is not APC reimbursement.
Not an instance
A monograph purchase is not an APC.

Editorial commentary

APC reimbursement operates through several models: (a) direct charge to the project's open-access publication budget, drawn against grant funds; (b) institutional block grants (UKRI, Wellcome) that the institution administers and distributes by published rules; (c) read-and-publish or transformative agreements brokered by the institution that cover APCs centrally; (d) post-acceptance reimbursement claims to a separate funder pool. Funder caps (e.g., the Wellcome cap on hybrid OA, Plan S restrictions) shape eligibility. The term Article processing charge already exists in the knowledge-equity domain and is cross-linked here.

References

UKRI Open Access Block Grant guidance; Wellcome Open Access Policy.

Also known as

APC payment (funder) · Funder OA reimbursement

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="APC reimbursement (funder)"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/apc-reimbursement-funder" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/apc-reimbursement-funder",
  "name": "APC reimbursement (funder)",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/apc-reimbursement-funder",
  "description": "The mechanism by which a research funder repays an article processing charge (APC) paid by an author or institution, either directly or via an institutional block grant, in support of open access publication of grant-supported research.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/funding-finance#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/apc-reimbursement-funder",
  "sameAs": [
    "APC payment (funder)",
    "Funder OA reimbursement"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-05-21T02:22:58",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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