Open Access Publishing: Open Access Publishing Fund

Taylor Health Sciences Library (THSL) and the Office of the Provost have set aside funds to support peer-reviewed open access scholarship by ACHE employees and students sponsored by ACHE faculty.

The mission of ACHE is to educate and train a diverse group of highly competent and compassionate healthcare professionals; to create health and research support facilities; and to provide healthy living environments to improve the lives of others. The Taylor Health Sciences Library Open Access Publishing Fund directly serves our mission by making healthcare information freely available to the world.

Fund Eligibility & Requirements

Authors

• ACHE employees pursuing research for publication who are the sole or co-author of the work are eligible to receive funds. ACHE students must ask their faculty sponsors to apply. 

Journals

• Qualifying journals must provide free, immediate, online access to the full text of the research article upon publication without restrictions. This is often called "Gold Open Access".
• Qualifying journals must have the fee schedule for open access publishing publicly available.
• Articles must be accepted for publication in a qualifying journal before applying for funds.
• Qualifying journals include those listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals or those that are compliant with the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association’s Code of Conduct.
• Authors agree to include the following acknowledgement on funded articles: “Publication fees for this article were supported by the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education Library Open Access Fund."

Funding

• Funding is available to support the publication of open access peer-reviewed journal articles, or invited submissions to eligible open access publications until funding is expended for the fiscal year (other publication formats may be considered on a case-by-case basis).
• Each lead author is eligible to request up to $2,500 for their open access funding in a fiscal year. An article is funded for open access publishing only once. The author is responsible for either negotiating down or paying any amount over the allotted scholarship. Articles will be supported on a first-come, first-served basis until funds are expended.
• Once approved for publication and funding, the author should direct the journal/publisher to send the invoice to the Library for payment. open access publishing fees paid in advance by the author will NOT be reimbursed.

Request Evaluation

• Journal eligibility will be reviewed by the Library. If you have questions about a specific publication's eligibility under this program, please contact library@achehealth.edu.
• Final funding approval is made by the Director of Library Services and the Research & Grants Committee.

Application Process

If the above criteria are met, the Open Access Publishing Fund Application can be used to request funds. Requests for publisher payment may be made as soon as an article is accepted and a statement or invoice for publication charges is received. Authors will be notified via email upon approval of funding (typically within seven business days). Payment will be made directly to the publisher.