University of Iowa Libraries and Provost Office Launches Open Access Publishing Fund

From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

[Last] week, the Office of the Provost and UI Libraries established a $50,000 fund to cover researchers’ publication fees for open access journals, which can be as much as $3,000. Library officials say it will be an annual fund.
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When researchers publish in an open access journal, they’re charged a publication fee. Mike Wright, UI’s interim associate university librarian for collections and scholarly communication, estimates that fees range from $100 up to $3,000. For researchers who don’t receive grant funding for their work — funding tends to concentrate in the medical and biological sciences — the fee is enough to deter them from open access, he said.
“If I’m an assistant professor in a humanities discipline, I’m probably not bringing in a huge salary, and a $2,500 publishing fee is a heck of a lot of money,” Wright said. “If I have a choice between an open access journal and a traditional journal that doesn’t charge me, I’m probably going to go with the traditional journal.”

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See Also: Libraries and Provost’s Office Open Access Fund

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Funding, Libraries, News, Open Access, Publishing