Library Supports Pilot Program for Open Access Publishing

Cheng Library offers assistance to faculty during pilot program for open access publishing.

In October 2015, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs  Stephen Hahn announced to University full-time faculty a new pilot program to support faculty publication in open access journals for the 2015 - 2016 academic year.

Under the terms of the program, the Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs provided $10,000 to help cover the cost of publishing in open access journals. These costs, known as article processing charges (APCs), are a component of one of the more common business models used by open access journal publishers.

The Cheng Library is charged with promoting and administering the program.  Following the October  announcement, the Library coordinated information sessions for faculty with each of the five colleges during the fall semester and maintains an online resource guide containing details about the program.  This guide includes a link to the faculty application form and information about open access publishing in general.

Full-time faculty from any  discipline may apply for the funds to cover fees associated with open access publishing. Funding is  limited to $800 per faculty member for the current fiscal year. Faculty who wish to apply for funding must do so upon acceptance of the work for publication, awards will be granted only with demonstrated validity of the open-access publication venue.

As part of Cheng Library’s responsibility in administering the program, the Library is offering assistance to faculty at each step of the publication process. Faculty interested in publishing in an open access journal are invited to contact Richard Kearney, Electronic Resources  Librarian, at an early stage of the process.

Below are listed some of  the services the Library will provide:

  • Assistance in identifying appropriate open access journals in any discipline, particularly those with clear peer-review policies, high editorial standards, and a presence in relevant subject indexes,
  • Assistance with manuscript submission procedures and requests for publication fee discounts/waivers where available,
  • Communication with publishers to clarify any questions about journal policies,
  • Assistance with completing the funding application form,
  • Post-award communication with journal publishers to process fee invoices.

The deadline for applications is April 30, 2016, and faculty may submit requests until then.

This pilot is part of a broader open access initiative that has been under discussion at the University since Spring 2014, when the first program about the potential advantages of open access publishing for faculty was held.

During the past two years, the Faculty Senate’s Research and Scholarship Council has taken a leadership role in exploring issues pertaining to open access publishing for faculty. 

Some of the issues this Council will address include:

  • further dissemination of information to faculty,
  • the role of open access publishing in retention and promotion decisions, and
  • formulating recommendations on future policies for faculty consideration.

While many questions and concerns still remain about the specific role open access could or should play in the future of academic scholarship, there is no doubt that open access publishing has a well-established presence in academia, and it continues to demonstrate substantial growth and development.

More than 11,000 journals are currently listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, and the  Bielefeld Academic Search Engine based in Germany now indexes in over 87 million documents from more than 4,000 digital repositories around the world, of which more than 1,100 are completely open access.

March 01, 2016