Open Access Publishing Fund

The University Libraries offers financial support to eligible members of the Mason community to off-set the costs of publishing in scholarly open access (OA) journals that charge author fees. Complete and submit the Open Access Publishing Fund (OAP Fund) application on the University Libraries’ website to apply for funds. Please read the following journal eligibility requirements before applying. Contact Claudia Holland (chollan3@gmu.edu) with any questions.

Most OA publications do not require payment because the host institution or a society absorbs the burden of cost. However, one OA business model currently practiced transfers the costs of publication from the end-user or an intermediary (i.e., the subscription model) to the producer (i.e., author). In this model, access to online articles is free of pay barriers, hence its label as “open access” content. Users may print-out or electronically share these articles without payment and with no restriction.

Toward this end, the Open Access Publishing Fund at Mason supports three broad goals:

  1. To encourage, and reduce financial barriers to, publication in scholarly open access journals.
  2. To disseminate scholarship produced at George Mason University as widely and immediately as possible.
  3. To foster research and artistic collaboration among and between scholars at Mason and throughout the world.

 Fund Details and Guidelines

For the current fiscal year (2012-2013), the University Libraries has established a fund of $25,000. Monies will be used to underwrite some or all of the article processing fees (APF) charged by reputable open access publishers (defined below).

Individuals eligible to apply for publisher payment of an APF may receive up to $3,000 per fiscal year, with a $3,000 cap per article. Financial support will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Funds are not distributed according to an individual’s affiliation with a particular school, college, or department. Nor is it the intention of this fund to endorse specific OA publishers or publications.

Journal eligibility

 Criteria used to select an OA journal in which to publish mimics those to choose a traditional, subscription-based journal. That is, research the journal’s review process, reputation in the discipline, impact factor (or similar metric), and acceptance rate. In addition to the appropriateness of the subject content, these criteria may have bearing on the decision to submit to a particular journal.

Requirements must be met by a journal for an individual to apply for OAP funds. The journal must:

  • Be listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (www.doaj.org),
  • Hold membership in the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (www.oaspa.org/members.php) or demonstrate its adherence to the Code of Conduct (www.oaspa.org/conduct.php),
  • Publish its standard fee schedules, and
  • Waive its article processing fee in cases of financial hardship, as evidenced by its public policy.

Authors may wish to publish in a journal that offers the option of paying a fee to make a subscription-based article freely available online (i.e., the “hybrid” model). Support for a hybrid journal open access fee will be considered if:

1) the publisher is a non-profit society or institution,

2) access to the journal’s proprietary content is available only through subscription with the society or institution and not through a for-profit aggregator like Proquest, Ebsco, or Elsevier,

3) the fee and its use are clearly indicated on the journal or publisher website, and

4) the fee is waived for authors from developing nations or those with demonstrated financial hardship.

Author eligibility

Who is eligible?

  • Any Mason faculty member
  • Registered graduate students
  • Post-doctoral fellows

An individual whose article has been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed open access journal in which the article is immediately available online is eligible to apply. To apply, an author must complete and submit an OA Publishing Fund request form, with a copy of the publisher’s invoice for the article processing fee, to:

Claudia Holland, Head, Copyright Resources Office
Johnson Center Library
MSN 1A6
chollan3@gmu.edu
703-993-2544
 

Applicants will be notified of funding approval. Payment will be made directly to the publisher.

Fees are pro-rated for multi-authored articles. That is, if more than one author from Mason applies for funding support for the same article, the article processing fee will be divided equally, up to the $3,000/article cap.

Alternative Funding

Faculty members who receive grants from sources that allow funds to be allocated for open access publication are asked not to apply to the OAP Fund. Researchers receiving support from the National Institutes of Health, the Wellcome Trust, and the Howard Hughs Medical Institute, among others, are permitted to use grant monies to underwrite open access publication of their findings. Contact Claudia Holland (chollan3@gmu.edu) or Mason’s Office of Sponsored Research for assistance, as needed.

OA publishing subsidies may be available through discretionary departmental or college/school funds, as well. Monies from the OAP Fund may be combined with those from a department, college, or school, or personal funds.

Attribution

Authors who receive support, please include this statement in your acknowledgements: Publication of this article was funded in part by the George Mason University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund.

MARS Submittal Requirement

Authors who are supported by the OAP Fund are expected to deposit a post-review, final draft of the article (or publisher approved version)  in Mason’s digital repository, Mason Archival Repository Service (MARS), upon receipt of funding notification.