Guidelines for Open Access Publishing Fund

Open Access Publishing Fund

The Open Access Publishing Fund is currently paused pending funding reallocations. Consider taking advantage of library agreements with Wiley and Cambridge University Press that allow UNCW authors to publish open access at no cost instead.

The Open Access Publication Fund supports Randall Library's mission to cultivate "the open exchange of ideas" and is aligned with UNCW's strategic priority to promote "the free exchange of thoughts" and engagement with the community and the world. Further, the fund serves to enhance the visibility and impact of research and scholarship at UNCW.  

This fund provides support to authors for payment of article processing charges (APCs). Applications for funds (one article per fiscal year per applicant, now up to $2400) must be submitted prior to or within 90 days of payment. Awards will only provide funding towards required APCs. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and will be considered until funding is exhausted. 

Author Eligibility

  • All current UNCW faculty members, staff members, and students are eligible. 
  • Student applicants must include a current UNCW faculty member in the author list. 
  • Research described in the article must have been conducted primarily while the author was employed by UNCW. 
  • Author/applicant(s) must not have alternate avenue(s) of external (e.g. NIH, NSF, Gates Foundation) or university funding support for publication. 

Journal Criteria 

The publication venue must be a fully open access peer-reviewed journal that permits distribution and reuse of content. The journal must also demonstrate scholarly integrity, which may include: 

  • Inclusion in research databases (Web of Science, etc.) 
  • Inclusion in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) 
  • Membership in or adherence to codes of conduct of relevant publisher associations, such as the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE) or the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) 

Article Criteria 

Articles must: 

  • Be a peer-reviewed article submitted to a fully open access journal. 
  • Not have been published previously.  
  • Have a publication status of “ready to submit,” "submitted," or "accepted." Funds will not be encumbered for manuscripts that are still being written. 

Funding Requirements 

Applicants who receive funding agree: 

  • To provide a public talk or other community-focused activity hosted by the library on the subject of the article. 
  • To provide a copy of the published article to Seahawk DOCKS, UNCW’s institutional repository. 
  • To deposit any data collected or generated from associated article into an open data repository (such as Dataverse) unless reasoning is provided. 

Fund Disbursement 

  • Funding requests can be made for an article with the status of “ready to submit,” "submitted," or "accepted." 
  • The program now encumbers funds for eligible articles. Awarded funds will be encumbered for four months to allow for the peer review process. If the paper is not accepted by the publisher or a purchase order not received for payment within four months of funding approval, the award will expire. The author will be notified and may later reapply for funds. 
  • Applications for payment (one article per fiscal year per applicant, up to $2400) must be submitted prior to or within 90 days of payment. Funds cannot be used retroactively for article payments beyond this window.