The following guide summarizes the terms approved by the Board of Directors of HEAL-Link, on November 12, 2025 and effective from January 1st, 2026. The terms are officially listed on HEAL-Link’s website.

Eligible Authors/Researchers

In order for an article to be eligible under the HEAL-Link agreement, the corresponding author must be actively affiliated with a HEAL-Link member institution, declare or select this affiliation on the publisher’s dashboard, and use their institutional e-mail address during submission. A detailed list of all HEAL-Link member institutions can be found here.

Exceptions to non-active members, but eligible under the HEAL-Link agreement, are:

1. Honorary members (Professors): They are eligible under certain conditions and strictly by using the institutional email address.
2. Emeriti faculty members: They are eligible but strictly by using the institutional email address.
3. Former faculty members: They are eligible under certain conditions and strictly by using the institutional email address.
4. Alumni: They are eligible for one (1) year after their graduation date.
5. Academic fellows and temporary researchers: They are eligible as long as their employment contract lasts plus six months after its end.
6. Research associates: They are eligible provided that they submit a certification of collaboration with the corresponding Department, Clinic, and/or Laboratory of a HEAL-Link member institution. This certification must confirm the collaboration and attest that the published work is the result of research carried out at the HEAL-Link member institution. The certificate must be issued by the Secretariat of the relevant Department or Research Center.
7. Authors and/or researchers of collaborating members of HEAL-Link: They are eligible only if the affiliation is included in the agreement that HEAL-Link has with the respective publisher.

There is a provision for other categories to be eligible under the HEAL-Link agreement. Please contact the Scolarly Communication Unit for further details: scholarly@heal-link.gr

Workflow followed by the Scholarly Communication Unit / HEAL-Link

All requests are handled on a first come-first served basis. The Unit is notified of the request after the article is accepted for publication.

In cases where an author does not respond to repeated messages sent by HEAL-Link (via e-mail and, where possible, by phone), it is assumed that the author is not interested. Accordingly, the request for a publication fee waiver is rejected seven (7) days after the date of the first message, and the request for a publication fee discount is rejected ten (10) days after the date of the first message.

In cases where a publication fee waiver is available for a limited number of publications, priority is given to active members of the HEAL-Link community, namely authors who have a current, active affiliation with a HEAL-Link member institution. To ensure optimal use of limited resources, when publishing on publishers with a restricted number of available waivers, authors are advised to seek coverage of publication fees through other available funding sources, where applicable (e.g. H.F.R.I., Horizon Europe, etc.).

Article eligibility is automatically recognized by the publisher, and no invoice is required at any stage of the process. If billing information is requested, authors should contact the publisher directly to resolve the issue. Under no circumstances should invoices be issued in the name of HEAL-Link employees. Any issuance or cancellation of invoices is the responsibility of the authors and may cause delays that could affect the coverage of publication costs.

It is necessary to mention the following passage in the Acknowledgements section of the article: “The publication of the article in OA mode was financially supported by HEAL-Link” .

Fully waived from APC

Unlimited number of publications

ACM

Waiver

Computer Science and related fields

Gold and Hybrid Journals, and Conference Proceedings

All CC licenses

Article type: Research article, review article and conference or proceedings papers

Until the index is updated, you can view the list of eligible journals here and here

Publisher’s guide

Cambridge University Press

Waiver

Interdisciplinary

Gold & Hybrid Journals

CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND, CC BY-NC-SA

Article types: research articles, review articles, rapid communications, brief reports or case reports

Until the index is updated, you can view the list of eligible journals here

Publisher’s guide

De Gruyter

Waiver

Interdisciplinary

Yearbooks, hybrid, S2O and gold OA journals

CC BY

All article types

Until the index is updated, you can view the list of eligible journals here

Publisher’s guide

Institute of Physics

Waiver

Physics and related fields

Gold & Hybrid Journals

CC BY

Article Type: Research paper, special issue, letter, review article types. With an exception in the journal “Reports on Progress in Physics”, in which review articles are not eligible.

Until the index is updated, you can view the list of eligible journals here

Publisher’s guide