COST encourages publishing in Open Access to promote the availability of results obtained with the support of COST funding. Publishing in Open Access is a means to boost the worldwide visibility and accessibility of publicly funded European science and technology research. To achieve this goal, COST facilitates Open Access publishing strategies for COST Actions and contributes to their costs, according to COST rules and principles for dissemination activities.

Open Access publication grants

Open Access publication grants provide financial support to the participants of GoodBrother in order to facilitate dissemination of high-quality research content. Eligible expenses are:

  • Open Access fee for scientific publications
  • Proof reading, editing, translation and layout expenses.

Eligibility criteria

  1. Open Access publication grants funded by GoodBrother can only be used to disseminate research outcomes performed by Action Participants that are co-authored by Action Participants from at least 3 different COST F/C and Partner Members (or 2 COST F/C and Partner Members and 1 NNC) or authored by Action Participants from 2 COST F/C and 1? Partner Member if resulting from an STSM funded by the Action.
  2. To ensure high quality of the publications, the publication shall be subjected to peer review. Peer review is defined as obtaining advice on individual manuscripts from reviewers, experts in the field who are not part of the journal’s editorial staff. This process, as well as any policies related to the journal’s peer review procedures, shall be clearly described on the journal’s website.
  3. Peer reviewed, scientific articles published in scientific journals must provide an acknowledgement of COST and do not require specific branding: “This publication is based upon work from COST Action CA19121 – GoodBrother, Network on Privacy-Aware Audio- and Video-Based Applications for Active and Assisted Living, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology)”.
  4. As proof of delivery, the authors must send to the Grant Awarding Coordinator, a copy of the accepted publication in pdf format (or link or DOI) within one week of the article’s online publication.
  5. The funds will not be provided before the final acceptance for publication.

Evaluation criteria

All the applications will be evaluated by a Grant Committee, led by the Grant Awarding Coordinator, based on the following criteria:

  • Alignment of the topic with the objectives of GoodBrother and its Working Groups. See the GoodBrother website and the GoodBrother Memorandum of Understanding for details.
  • Impact of the scientific publication. In selecting the publisher for a scientific publication to be published in Open Access, the publication shall be of high impact. Any journals situated in the first two quartiles Q1-Q2 of the Journal Citation Reports are presumed to have a sufficient impact, while journals not appearing in those quartiles require an assessment, considering other journal rankings, by the Grant Committee. Journals considered as predatory must be avoided.
  • Co-funding from other sources

The submissions will be evaluated in a first come, first served basis.

How to apply?

Applications must be submitted once the paper is accepted for publication. 

To apply for Open Access publication grant, please send the following documents (in a single pdf file) to the Grant Awarding CoordinatorThis is an ongoing call that is only constrained by the budget of the GoodBrother COST Action.

  1. filled Open Access Grant application form
  2. the complete draft of the paper

Please let us know in advance that you intend to submit a paper that will be potentially OA. This will significantly speed up our internal review process.

It is expected that each grantee will send a copy of the published paper (in its final published form) to the Communication Manager of the GoodBrother Action. It will be then disseminated using the official GoodBrother website, social media, etc.

For any further information, please contact the Grant Awarding Coordinator or see the Annotated Rules for COST Actions