Book Publication Subvention Funding

University of Oregon Book Publication Subvention Fund Pilot

The landscape of scholarly book publishing is becoming increasingly challenging as tightening budgets and national financial pressures drive up the costs associated with publishing in reputable academic venues. In response to these pressures, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, the Oregon Humanities Center, UO College of Arts and Sciences, and UO Libraries are partnering to fund and pilot a book subvention fund for the 2026-2027 fiscal year. The pilot program will be administered by UO Libraries’ personnel.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and funding is dispensed throughout the fiscal year on a first come, first served basis. Applications may close if funding is exhausted prior to the end of the fiscal year, so early applications are recommended.

If you have any questions about this funding, please reach out to us at digitalscholarship@uoregon.edu.

Eligibility Criteria

  • Eligible Faculty: 
    • All UO-affiliated tenure-track, career, research faculty, and librarians from any discipline who are first or corresponding author/editor on a monograph are eligible to submit a subvention request.  
    • In the case of high demand for the fund, faculty who are pre-promotion will be given priority. 
  • Eligible Projects: 
    • Any type of published monograph wholly authored by UO researchers (e.g. non-fiction, fiction, reference works, creative works such as photo books, etc.) is eligible. 
    • Only full monographs are eligible; individual book chapters and edited volumes do not qualify. 
    • While open access is not a requirement, it is strongly encouraged, even if it incurs additional publication costs. 
  • Eligible Publishers: 
  • Eligible Costs: 
    • Faculty must attest that all other funding sources have been exhausted, including ASAs, start-up funds, external and internal grant funds. 
    • Allowable publishing support includes subvention charges, page charges, open publishing charges, and fees or labor costs for specific publication services such as indexing, abstracting, copyediting, or securing copyright permissions, images, etc. 
    • Costs specific to the sale of a physical edition of your book, such as printing, paper, and shipping are not eligible for this funding source. 
    • Any other related publishing cost is eligible for coverage so long as they are related to monograph publishing with any university or academy-owned, non-profit press and exceed any amounts eligible to be used from existing grants or other funding sources. 
    • Note: The publication subvention fund is meant to pay publishers directly for book publication costs. This fund may not be used to reimburse faculty for funds already paid to the publisher. 

Applicant Agreement

The faculty member must agree to acknowledge publication subvention support in the preface, introduction, or acknowledgement of the book with the following:  

“Support for this research was provided by the University of Oregon Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, Oregon Humanities Center, College of Arts and Sciences, and UO Libraries.” 

Awardees also agree to deposit the final version of the monograph (or OA digital edition link) into UO Scholars’ Bank whenever publisher policies allow. 

Application Guidelines & Instructions

Before submitting the application form, faculty should gather and prepare the following materials: 

  • A copy of the book proposal that was submitted to the publisher. 
  • A brief statement of need not to exceed 1 page. Statement of need should include explanation of other sources of funding exhausted prior to application and any request for early career priority consideration. 
  • A signed, current copy of the contract with the publisher or in cases where the finalized contract is contingent of funding, a communication from the potential publisher that describes the nature of potential agreement. 
  • An invoice from your publisher that includes a detailed, line-item budget for publishing service expenses incurred related to the production of the monograph, in addition to a brief explanation/justification of costs. 
  • If applicable, documentation of any other internal or external grants or funding sources that have been applied for to support publication. 

After gathering these materials, complete the Online Application Form:

Apply for the Book Subvention Fund

Program Timeline

The subvention pilot will run until funding is exhausted. Any notifications of funding status or program changes will be posted on this web page. Applications will be reviewed asynchronously by the review committee on a rolling basis, and applicants will be notified of the outcome within 5 business days. 

Review Committee 

The subvention fund will be administered by UO Libraries personnel. The Review Committee will evaluate applications to confirm compliance with program guidelines and allowable expenses, approving them on a first‑come, first‑served basis. Should requests exceed available funds, early‑career faculty will receive priority consideration. 

  • Rayne Vieger, UO Libraries 
  • Franny Gaede, UO Libraries 

Contact 

Questions about the Book Subvention Fund or UO Libraries’ digital publishing support services may be directed to: digitalscholarship@uoregon.edu.