Frequently Asked Questions — ONOS APC

Eligible applicants are regular faculty members, research scholars, students, or Principal Investigators at IIT Guwahati who are affiliated with the institute at the time of article submission. The applicant must be either the first author or the corresponding author of the article.

No. The ONOS APC scheme requires the applicant to be either the first author or the corresponding author. Co-authors who are not first/corresponding authors cannot apply, even if they are affiliated with IIT Guwahati. However, co-authors may be from any institution.

Yes. Regular PhD students enrolled at IIT Guwahati are eligible to apply, provided they are the first or corresponding author and their paper is accepted in one of the 426 ONOS-eligible journals. The eligible journal count is subject to revision by INFLIBNET and updated here automatically.

No. If the APC is being paid or shown as a component of any government or private project grant, national or international funding, you are NOT eligible for ONOS APC support. Double-claiming constitutes grounds for full recovery of the amount paid plus administrative/legal action.

The ONOS guidelines do not specify a per-author annual cap. However, support is subject to fund availability on a first-come, first-served basis. Authors are advised to contact Lakshminath Bezbaroa Central Library or check the ONOS portal for any updates on limits.

Yes. Co-authors may be from any institution, national or international. The eligibility requirement is only on the applicant (first or corresponding author), who must be affiliated with IIT Guwahati. Co-authors from other institutions do not affect your eligibility.

426 journals are currently included in the ONOS APC eligible list. These are top-5% Q1 Gold Open Access journals across all disciplines. The list is managed by INFLIBNET and may be updated periodically — the count shown here is updated automatically to reflect the current list.

You can check in two ways:

• Use the interactive journal search on this website — search by title, subject, publisher, or browse A–Z.
• Visit the official ONOS portal: onos.gov.in/APCTitles.

When registering on the ONOS APC portal, you can also select your journal from a dropdown of eligible titles.

No. ONOS APC support covers only Gold Open Access journals in the eligible list. Hybrid journals — where only some articles are open access — are not covered. All 426 eligible journals are fully Gold OA. The eligible journal count is subject to revision by INFLIBNET and updated here automatically.

No. APC support is only for journals on the official ONOS list. If your target journal is not on the list, there is no provision for ONOS APC funding for that article.

Tip: Before submitting, verify the journal is on the eligible list to avoid disappointment after acceptance.

You should register on the ONOS APC portal after receiving the acceptance letter from the journal. You will need the acceptance letter and an APC invoice addressed to INFLIBNET Centre as part of the application.

Yes. After acceptance, inform the publisher that the APC will be paid directly by INFLIBNET Centre and request an invoice/proforma invoice addressed to INFLIBNET Centre (GSTIN: 24AAATI1480J1ZS, PAN: AAATI1480J1). The invoice must include the journal name, manuscript ID/DOI, APC amount, and publisher's bank details.

You must use your IIT Guwahati institutional email address (@iitg.ac.in). The OTP for verification is sent to this email. Personal email IDs are not accepted.

ORCID is not strictly mandatory, but it is strongly recommended. The ONOS portal has a field for ORCID ID, and having one simplifies the process and strengthens your author identity. If you do not have an ORCID, you can register for free at orcid.org.

The ONOS APC portal has a session time limit. To avoid timeout:

• Prepare all information in advance (AADHAAR name, article details, author details, invoice).
• Keep all documents open/ready as PDFs before starting.
• If it times out mid-form, check "Already Registered Author?" on the portal — if your submission was partially saved, you may be able to retrieve and complete it.
• If not, restart the registration process with all information ready.

Go to the ONOS APC portal (onos.gov.in/apc). Click "Already Registered Author?" (top right on the registration page). Enter your institutional email → OTP → submit. On the Submitted Article Details page, click the View PDF icon to download the Declaration of Author's Contribution.

Three documents must be uploaded via the "Pending" status link in Existing Submissions:

1. Signed Author Declaration — Declaration of Author's Contribution (downloaded from ONOS portal), signed by all co-authors and Dean of Academic Research, scanned to PDF.
2. Acceptance Email/Letter — from the journal confirming acceptance (PDF).
3. APC Invoice / Proforma Invoice — from the publisher, showing the APC amount and addressed to INFLIBNET Centre (PDF).

It is a system-generated PDF downloaded from the ONOS portal after you submit your APC application. It contains: paper title, authors with affiliations and ORCID IDs, acceptance date, journal details, contribution types for each author, and the Declaration and Endorsement section. All co-authors must sign it, and the institutional endorsement (Head of Institution) must be obtained before uploading.

At IIT Guwahati, the Dean of Academic Research is the designated signing authority for the Head of Institution (HoI) endorsement on the ONOS APC Declaration. The process at IIT Guwahati is:

1. All co-authors sign first.
2. Dean of Academic Research signs (with office seal/stamp) as HoI endorsement.

The endorsement certifies two things:

• (a) That the applicant author is a Bonafide full-time employee / regular student / researcher affiliated with IIT Guwahati (strike off whichever is not applicable).
• (b) That if the applicant has to return the APC charge paid by ONOS and does not pay within the time specified, the Institute will recover the amount and pay it to ONOS.

The institutional endorsement (by the Dean of Academic Research) applies to the applicant's institution, i.e., IIT Guwahati. Co-authors from other institutions do not need endorsement from their institution for this application. Their signature on the declaration is sufficient.

The ONOS APC portal and INFLIBNET guidelines require a physical signature with office seal/stamp for the HoI endorsement. Check with Lakshminath Bezbaroa Central Library for the current accepted format — physical (wet ink) signatures are generally required. Scan the completed signed document to PDF for upload.

No. INFLIBNET Centre pays the APC directly to the publisher. You do not need to pay upfront and seek reimbursement. The invoice from the publisher must be addressed to INFLIBNET Centre, not to you or IIT Guwahati.

After successful submission and nodal officer verification, INFLIBNET typically processes payment within approximately 15–20 working days. You will receive an email notification once payment is made. Processing time may vary.

Yes. TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) is deducted as per the Government of India rules on APC payments made to publishers. This may be relevant for the publisher's accounting. Authors should inform publishers of this when communicating about the invoice.

Important If the article is retracted by the journal after APC is paid by ONOS, the author is personally liable to return the entire APC amount, in addition to other administrative/legal actions. IIT Guwahati's Dean of Academic Research has certified (via the endorsement) that the Institute will recover the amount from the author and pay it to ONOS.

After the APC is paid and the article is published, you must confirm publication on the ONOS portal. If you do not, your next article will not be eligible for ONOS APC support. This is a mandatory post-publication step.

IIT Guwahati's ONOS institute code is U-0053. When filling in the institution name on the portal, select "Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati" and ensure the code U-0053 is associated.

The Nodal Officer for ONOS APC at IIT Guwahati is based at Lakshminath Bezbaroa Central Library. Contact the library at librarian@iitg.ac.in for the name and contact details of the current Nodal Officer.

Upload the three required documents (signed declaration, acceptance email, APC invoice) to the ONOS portal via Existing Submissions → Pending. The Nodal Officer at Lakshminath Bezbaroa Central Library is automatically notified by the system, reviews the documents, and approves on the ONOS admin portal. For queries, contact librarian@iitg.ac.in.

• Lakshminath Bezbaroa Central Library, IIT Guwahati: librarian@iitg.ac.in (for institutional process, nodal officer verification, endorsement workflow)
• ONOS APC Support (INFLIBNET): apcsupport@onos.gov.in or +91-79-2326 8246 (for portal issues, payment queries)
• ONOS APC Support Portal: onos.gov.in/apc-support