Article Processing Charge Award

***Note: Due to increasing demand for the OA-APC Award Fund and limited funding, the Book Processing Charge (BPC) Award has been removed for FY 2024-2025.***

UO Libraries Open Access Article Processing Charge (OA-APC) Award Fund, renewed and updated for 2024-25

During the 2020-21 year, the University of Oregon Libraries, in collaboration with the UO Senate Subcommittee on Open Access, launched an Article Processing Charge Award to all UO researchers publishing in Open Access Journals. It has been renewed again for 2024-2025.

As more high-quality journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences turn to an article-fee based Open Access publishing model, researchers are encountering a new financial barrier to publishing: the Article Processing Charge (APC). Yet, Open Access publishing provides much greater access to research in a way that subscription-fee based publishing cannot, and the UO Libraries is pursuing many ways to support high-quality Open Access publishing efforts, including this Article Processing Charge Award.

The OA-APC Fund is intended to support high-quality open access publishing by the UO community.

Funding Available for Open Access Publishing (UO OA-APC Fund)

  • Up to $2,000 per UO researcher per funding year to support the publication of Open Access Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles, until funding runs out
  • A maximum APC award of $2,000 per article, even if there are multiple UO authors
  • UO researchers may spread their potential allotment out over multiple requests

Applicant Guidelines

  • UO researchers includes any current member of the UO faculty, student body, and staff pursuing research for publication.
    • Outside researchers may be co-authors, but not the primary or first author. In the case of an outside researcher being listed as “first” author due solely to the alphabetical listing of authors, please include an explanation.
    • One exception to the first/primary author rule is for UO Alumni who are the first/primary author, if the applicant is a co-author who is a current faculty member, student, or staff member at the UO, and the publication is based upon research done at the UO. Note that the allotment would be granted to a current UO researcher who is a sponsor, not the Alumnus.
  • UO researchers who are early career will be privileged in the case that more requests are made than can be fully funded. (e.g., students, pre-promotion/tenure TTF and NTTF, etc.) This includes early-career co-authors but especially applies to early career authors who are the first or primary author of an article.
  • Articles must be accepted for publication in a qualifying publication before applying for the OA-APC Funds
  • Do not pay fees in advance; the UO Libraries must submit payment directly and cannot reimburse researchers

Article Publication Guidelines

  • Journals must provide free, immediate, online access to the full text of research articles upon publication without restrictions
  • Eligible journals include those listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, or publishers that are generally compliant with the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association’s (OASPA) Code of Conduct
  • Journals must be peer-reviewed
  • Journals must make their standard fee schedules publicly accessible
  • Hybrid journals do not qualify (i.e., a journal must be entirely open access, rather than offering “optional-OA” fees. The journal may not charge a subscription fee.)

Note: Individual OA chapters in books that are fully open access qualify for this award, however due to limited funds, we cannot fund full books at this time.

Process

  1. Submit the Article Processing Charge Application.
  2. The UO Libraries OA-APC Fund Committee will review applications as they are submitted. We typically reply within a couple of days.

More Information

For questions about the UO Libraries' OA-APC Fund and application process, email Miriam Rigby, rigby@uoregon.edu or Rayne Vieger, raynev@uoregon.edu.
If you have another type of Open Access publishing project (journal, ebook, open educational resources, etc.) for which you would like support, please contact us to discuss options as well.

For more information about recent Open Access work at the UO Libraries, please see:

Acknowledgements

These guidelines were strongly influenced by APC Fund documents from many libraries. Thank you especially to Ally Laird at Penn State University for sharing some specific wording.