Funds available for faculty to publish in Open Access journals

The Offices of the Provost and the Vice President for Research and Economic Development have established a new fund to support faculty who want to publish in Open Access journals and who do not have other sources of funding available to cover publication fees.

This year $15,000 has been made available. Funding for articles that comply with eligibility criteria will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Details on eligible journals, fund rules, and information on how to apply are available at http://uri.libguides.com/oafund/.

The URI Open Access Fund is available to full-time faculty of the University of Rhode Island and is managed by the University Libraries.

Fund helps Emory authors get published

By Lisa Macklin and Maureen McGavin | Emory Libraries | July 10, 2013

The Emory University Open Access (OA) Publishing Fund helped Emory University researchers publish four articles in scholarly open access journals this year, and the plan is to assist even more authors in the coming months.

The fund for the first year was $25,000. The same amount will be funded next year, so requests are encouraged.  

The publishing fund is part of OpenEmory, an open access repository of scholarly articles by Emory faculty members, and is a service of Emory Libraries. The OA Publishing Fund guidelines were approved by the University Senate's Library Policy Committee. The Emory Libraries Scholarly Communication Office, directed by Lisa Macklin, administers the fund.  

"The purpose of the OA Publishing Fund is to foster the exploration of open access publishing across research communities, and we intentionally made the fund available to students as well as faculty," Macklin says. "We're very pleased that three of the four articles funded included a student co-author. We have three more articles approved for funds, but these articles have not yet been published."  

Macklin says the OA fund covers article processing fees when no other funds are available, making it easier for Emory authors to publish in eligible open access journals and books. The fund's web page includes the guidelines for eligibility for the fund and links to the Directory of Open Access Journals and Directory of Open Access Books for those who want to find OA journals and book publishers in their field.  

Emory University faculty, post-docs, and currently enrolled graduate and undergraduate students on the Emory and Oxford campuses are eligible to apply for funding. The money is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, up to a maximum reimbursement of $1,500 per article or book. See the funding web page for details, including other restrictions.    

The OA-funded articles from this academic year were:  

• "Diet and density dependent competition affect larval performance and oviposition site selection in the mosquito species Aedesalbopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)," co-authored by Miho Yoshioka, Jannelle Couret, Frances Kim, Joseph McMillan, Uriel Kitron and Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec of Emory University; Thomas R. Burkot of James Cook University (Australia) and Ellen M. Dotson of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. This article was published in October 2012.

•  "Bonobos respond to distress in others: Consolation across the age spectrum,"  co-authored by Frans B. M. de Waal and Zanna Clay of Emory University.  

• "Association of duration of residence in the southeastern United States with chronic kidney disease may differ by race: the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS)" cohort study, co-authored by Laura Plantinga, Suzanne Elizabeth Judd, and William McClellan of Emory University; Virginia J. Howard, Paul Muntner, Rikki Tanner, Dana Rizk, David G. Warnock, and George Howard of the University of Alabama; and Daniel T. Lackland of Medical University of South Carolina.  

• "Promoting neonatal staff nurses' comfort and involvement in end of life and bereavement care," co-authored by Weihua Zhang of Emory University and Betty S. Lane of Clayton State University.  

For more information on OpenEmory or the OA Publishing Fund, visit the website or contact Lisa Macklin at lisa.macklin@emory.edu or 404-727-1535.

Libraries and Division of Research Create OAK Fund

Marketing and Communications | September 02, 2013

The Texas A&M University Libraries and the Division of Research have established a dedicated fund to support scholarly publication in the institutional repository. The OAK Fund will underwrite charges for scholarly journals and monographs according to guidelines and eligibility criteria set forth on the Libraries scholarly communication website.

The OAK Fund complements the OAK Trust, the Libraries’ institutional repository. Peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and scholarly monographs are eligible for funding.

For a minimum of two years, the OAK Fund will have a total allocation of $50,000 annually. This funding is made possible by shared contributions from the University Libraries and the Division of Research of $25,000 each. After two years, the program will be assessed for effectiveness. If successful, the program may be expanded.

The OAK Fund aims to encourage innovative models of scholarly publishing using digital and networking technologies, increase access to Texas A&M research and scholarship and assist faculty and researchers to publish in open-access (OA) venues, but may lack the funding sources to meet the OA publication charges. Each author may receive up to $3000 per year for all open access fees. Funding for qualified projects will be made on a first come-first served basis within the academic year.

“OA publications are an exciting option for faculty and the communication of research. Among other advantages, it expands the reach and visibility of the vital and rich contributions in research being made by A&M faculty. We’re especially pleased to partner with the Division of Research through the OAK Fund to promote scholarly publication using this innovative model. While the application process is straightforward, our librarians in the scholarly communication office are happy to assist with the process and answer questions regarding the guidelines,” explained David H. Carlson, dean of the University Libraries in announcing the OAK Fund initiative.

In approving the funding for the OAK Trust, Dr. Glen A. Laine, Interim Vice President for Research, commented, “The discovery and dissemination of knowledge is central to the mission of a tier one research institution. The OAK Fund will provide our academic and research community an additional peer-reviewed mechanism to communicate their findings.”

For questions or assistance with applications, email mailto:akfund@library.tamu.eduor call 979-862-1635.

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For more information: contact Charlene Clark, Texas A&M University Libraries; 979.862.4233 or charleneclark@library.tamu.edu

University of Tennessee Signs Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE)

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT) has proclaimed support for open-access publishing of journal articles by signing the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE). UT is the eighteenth institution to join a roster of signatories that includes Harvard, Duke, Sloan-Kettering, and other preeminent research institutions.

Open-access publishing is an alternative to the prevailing business model of subscription-based journal publishing. Open-access journals are freely available online to researchers, scholars, and the public worldwide.

COPE was formed in 2009 to encourage equity of the two models of journal publishing.

For universities, open-access publishing offers several advantages over the traditional model. Open access insures that research and scholarly work will be broadly disseminated and discovered. Scholarly work and research results are published online, through journals and institutional digital repositories, and made immediately available to the millions of people around the world who have access to the Internet.

Open-access publishing also allows authors to retain copyrights in own scholarly work rather than ceding copyrights to a commercial publisher.

Commercial publishers play a valuable role in the cycle of scholar communication. However, in recent decades inflation in costs of subscription-based journals has consumed an every larger portion of university libraries’ collections budgets. 

"Open-access publishing offers an attractive and viable alternative to the scenario of ever-increasing journal subscription fees," says Steve Smith, UT's dean of libraries. Publication costs for open-access journals are borne on the front end by sponsoring organizations or through author fees (article processing charges) rather than subscription fees charged to the end user. "We are proud that UT's Open Publishing Support Fund has, since 2008, been subsidizing publication in open-access journals," declares Smith. The Fund, a project of the university libraries and the office of research and engagement, has to date underwritten the publication of 79 open-access articles by 48 faculty and graduate student authors.

The University of Tennessee has long had a policy of supporting and funding open-access publishing. A decade ago, a group of UT life sciences faculty requested that the university provide incentives for faculty to publish in open-access journals. The UT Faculty Senate endorsed the Tempe Principles for Emerging Systems of Scholarly Publishing in 2003 and passed a resolution in May 2006 endorsing administrative incentives to encourage faculty publication in alternative scholarly outlets. 

"Joining COPE confirms the university's commitment to a new culture of scholarly communication," according to Taylor Eighmy, UT's vice chancellor for research and engagement.  "For tenure and promotion decisions, 'peer-reviewed' is 'peer-reviewed,' whether on paper or online. The ultimate goal is to create and disseminate new knowledge. Sharing UT's research and scholarship is central to our mission as a land-grant institution." 

The University of Pittsburgh has joined 16 other leading research institutions as a signatory to the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE). 

Participation in COPE is the university’s latest move in support of Open Access to scholarly research.  Through this program, the University Library System, University of Pittsburgh (ULS) seeks to encourage a new business model to cover the cost of publishing research results in Open Access journals without cost barriers to the global research community.  The program will subsidize fees charged to eligible Pitt authors to publish in most Open Access journals.  Details on the program can be found at http://oscp.library.pitt.edu/author-fees-fund/.

Open Access journals now number over 8,000, and most provide all the guarantees of academic quality controlled through rigorous peer review of content.  At the same time, Open Access journals benefit from wider distribution and discoverability of their content by eliminating the barriers of cost and limited access associated with traditional subscription-based journals. 

The ULS’s longstanding commitment to Open Access encompasses a significant publishing program including 33 peer-reviewed e-journals; six subject-based repositories; D‑Scholarship@Pitt, the Open Access repository for the University’s scholarly output; and training, outreach, and advocacy programs to support Open Access.

”The ULS is strongly committed to open access publishing, both as a publisher and host for open access journals and as a consumer of information.  The traditional subscription-based model for academic publishing characterized by escalating costs and the growing commercialization of knowledge runs counter to academic culture and tradition.  We believe that new knowledge should be shared widely in a manner that is as unfettered as possible.  By joining the growing movement to assist our faculty to publish in true Open Access platforms, we are simply following our commitment to a logical next phase,” said Rush Miller, Hillman University Librarian and Director of the ULS. 

The University Library System (ULS), University of Pittsburgh is the 22nd largest academic library system in North America. Under the administration of the Hillman University Librarian and Director, it includes 15 libraries and holds more than 6.4 million volumes, world specialized collections, and major foreign language materials from around the world.  The ULS offers state-of-the-art facilities and services, including innovative digital library collections and services and a robust Open Access publishing program. For more information about the University Library System (ULS), University of Pittsburgh, visit http://www.library.pitt.edu.

Open-access to Scholarly Publishing More Available Than Ever    

Helmholtz Association supports open-access publishing

Open access, the free access to scientific information, is an advanced publication strategy that has been officially promoted by the Helmholtz Association since 2004. To facilitate straightforward funding of scientific publications in open-access journals, the Helmholtz Association is now supporting the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE).

Open access improves the public perception of research results and facilitates working in digital research environments. In 2004, the Helmholtz Association was the first of the large German research organisations to approve recommendations for open-access publishing and is supporting the transformation of scientific publishing towards open access in many ways. Scientists of the Helmholtz Association are increasingly publishing in open-access journals. These journals are often financing free access to their content by publication fees that are covered by the authors' research institutions.

The research centres of the Helmholtz Association have now declared their support of the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE) and their willingness to establish sustainable mechanisms for the payment of reasonable open-access publishing fees. It is of primary concern to the Helmholtz Association that publishing in open-access journals will be as easy for its scientists as in journals with conventional financing. „We would like to press ahead with the change towards a sustainable and innovative system of scholarly communication. Open access is the publication strategy of the future“, says Dr. Rolf Zettl, managing director of the Helmholtz Association.

The international initiative COPE has been started by Harvard University, the MIT and other leading US universities to advance open-access publishing. In October 2011, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has been the first research institution in Germany to sign COPE. The setting-up of a publication fund to finance open-access publishing fees at KIT is an example for the open-access activities of the Helmholtz Centres. With the support of the Helmholtz Open Access Project, the research centres have already entered several open-access contracts with international scientific publishers.

KIT Signs Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity (COPE)

KIT signs the international Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity (COPE) and now is among the renowned international supporters of open access publishing.

On the occasion of the worldwide Open Access Week, important news are reported by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT): The Presidential Committee of KIT as the first German research institution signed the Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity (COPE) on October 26. The COPE international initiative was initiated by leading US universities, e.g. Harvard and MIT, and is an important element for supporting open access publishing: By their signature, the participating education and research institutions undertake to establish at their institutions sustainable mechanisms for the complete or partial take-over of open access publication fees. COPE leaves the choice of methods and models of implementation to every institution.

By signing COPE, KIT makes another important step towards supporting sustainable science communication with new types of open access publishing to improve free access to scientific findings. Establishment of new, special open access funds is necessary, as publishing companies charge a fee for the publication and organization of quality assurance, which is to be paid by the authors or their institutions. Although this publication fee ensures the price transparency of the scientific journal market distorted by oligopolies, which has long been demanded by libraries, it also prevents many scientists from publishing in open access journals. Establishment of the special publication fund initiated by COPE will reduce the obstacles to open access publishing in the long term and facilitate the decision of scientists in favor of publishing in a journal of this type.

The decision of the Presidential Committee to join COPE is based on previous fruitful work at KIT, where the ideas of COPE have already been implemented since the beginning of this year. In early 2011, the KIT publication fund was established. It is administrated by the KIT Library and supports publications in peer-reviewed journals with publication fees of less than EUR 2000. Financing is based on funds granted by the German Research Foundation (DFG) that has been providing funding for the establishment of a central, institutional publication fund under a special funding line since 2009.

Based on these previous activities, joining of COPE is aimed at supporting the new infrastructure measures relating to the KIT publication fund and at turning this scheme into a permanent funding structure.

KIT unterzeichnet Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity (COPE)

Passend zur weltweiten Open Access Week hat das Präsidium des Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie (KIT) am 26. Oktober den Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity (COPE) unterzeichnet.

Das KIT als erste deutsche Forschungseinrichtung, die COPE unterzeichnet hat, reiht sich damit ein unter die Förderer des zukunftsträchtigen Open-Access-Publikationswegs.

Die internationale Initiative COPE wurde von führenden US-Universitäten wie Harvard und MIT initiiert und ist ein weiterer Baustein für die Förderung des Open-Access-Publizierens: Durch die Unterzeichnung verpflichten sich die teilnehmenden Bildungs- und Forschungseinrichtungen, in ihren Institutionen nachhaltige Mechanismen der vollständigen oder teilweisen Übernahme von Open-Access-Publikationsgebühren einzurichten. Der COPE lässt jeder Einrichtung bei der Wahl der Methoden und Modelle der Umsetzung freie Hand.

Mit der Unterzeichnung geht das KIT einen weiteren, wichtigen Schritt hin zur Förderung einer nachhaltigen Wissenschaftskommunikation, die neue Publikationsformen im Umfeld des Open-Access-Publizierens fördert und so den freien Zugang zu wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen verbessert: Der Aufbau neuer, spezieller Open-Access-Fördertöpfe ist notwendig, da Verlage in der Regel von Autoren beziehungsweise ihren Einrichtungen eine Gebühr für die Publikation und Organisation des Qualitätssicherungsprozesses verlangen.

Diese Publikationsgebühr bringt zwar endlich die von Bibliotheken lang geforderte Preistransparenz in den von Oligopolen verzerrten wissenschaftlichen Zeitschriftenmarkt, aber sie hält auch viele Wissenschaftler davon ab, in Open Access Journals zu publizieren. Die Einrichtung der vom COPE initiierten speziellen Förderungsfonds baut so langfristig Hemmnisse gegen das Open-Access-Publizieren ab und erleichtert Wissenschaftlern die Entscheidung für die Veröffentlichung in einer Zeitschrift nach diesem Geschäftsmodell.

Der Beitrittsbeschluss des Präsidiums baut auf fruchtbaren Arbeiten am KIT auf, denn hier werden die Ideen des COPE bereits seit Beginn des Jahres in die Tat umgesetzt: Seit 2011 existiert der von der KIT-Bibliothek verwaltete KIT-Publikationsfonds, der Veröffentlichungen in peer-reviewed-Zeitschriften mit Publikationsgebühren von unter 2000 Euro bezuschusst. Die Finanzierung erfolgt aus Mitteln der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft, die seit 2009 über eine spezielle Förderlinie finanzielle Mittel für den Aufbau von zentralen, institutionseigenen Publikationsfonds bereitstellt.

Der Beitritt zu COPE soll aufbauend auf diesen praktischen Vorarbeiten auch ein Zeichen setzen, damit die neuen infrastrukturellen Maßnahmen, die mit der Etablierung des KIT-Publikationsfonds verbunden waren, am KIT verstetigt und in eine dauerhafte Förderstruktur überführt werden.

FWF supports an international Open Access initiative

The FWF supports the initiative "The Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity" (COPE) which requires that all scholarly publications should not only be freely available but also financially supported by research institutions and funding agencies.

> www.oacompact.org

Meanwhile, this initiative is supported by 13 Nobelists and a number of highly prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Cornell, Duke, MIT, Columbia, Berkeley, Wellcome Trust or CERN.

In line with this initiative, the FWF funds refereed Open Access publications of all disciplines in journals since 2004 as well as proceedings, collected volumes or books since 2009.

> www.fwf.ac.at/en/public_relations/oai/index.html


Contact
Dr. Falk Reckling