Financial document

Financial support for open access publishing

Support, discounts and other funding opportunities for authors.
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Alert

We wish to inform you that funds for the Library Shared Support Fund are fully committed for 2023-2024, and that the Library is ceasing its direct support of article processing charges (APCs) through this fund.

Please refer to the Library Shared Support section of this website, below, for more information
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Overview

The University of Ottawa Library offers financial support for open access publishing:

  • Through negotiated agreements that provide discounts on open access fees.
    • Check the Discounts with publishers section of this page to verify if your publisher is covered.
  • Through campus partnerships and external memberships that support infrastructure for different models of open access publishing.
    • See the Library support for open access section below to learn how the Library is committed to supporting no-fee open access publishing. Get in touch with us if you have an open access initiative to suggest.

Eligibility

Faculty members, staff, current graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and adjunct professors affiliated with the University of Ottawa.

Researchers working for University of Ottawa Research Centres and Institutes and Affiliated Research Institutes.

To be eligible for funding support the uOttawa or affiliated researcher must be the corresponding author.

Articles must be peer-reviewed.

Availability of funds

Discounts and financial support options are subject to change and availability of funds.

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Open access initiatives

The library seeks to support a variety of initiatives that advance no-fee open access publishing. If you have an open access membership or initiative you would like us to consider, please send us an email.
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Discounts with publishers

You must identify yourself as affiliated with the University of Ottawa at the time of submission to receive the discounts listed below. 

Eligibility dates may vary between publishers. These reflect dates on which memberships were activated.

Library shared support Fund

Update to Library Shared Support Fund (updated Jan 2024)

Please be advised that funds for the Library Shared Support Fund are fully committed for 2023-2024, and that the Library will end its direct support of article processing charges (APCs) through this fund.

Since 2010, the Library has financially supported authors through the direct funding of APCs with varying criteria and coverage. In 2016, the Library revised criteria and introduced the Shared Support Fund, a shared cost model of financially supporting APCs paid by researchers publishing in fully open access journals. Since the program’s inception in 2010, the Library has reimbursed close to 1000 grants to uO researchers across its 10 faculties, funding over $1.8 million in APCs. 

In recent years, the uO Library has been analyzing the sustainability of directly supporting APCs through the Shared Support Fund. The Library strives to maintain a balanced approach to open access investments, focusing equitable and sustainable options for open access publishing beyond APCs. We realize this decision will impact our community, but as we move to align with institutions across Canada, we remain committed to ensuring our authors can access a diversity of supports in order to publish open access. 

Alternative options for authors

The following options enable authors to publish open access:

  • Authors can deposit their publications in uO Research, uOttawa’s institutional repository, without cost, to provide open and permanent access to uOttawa scholarship and ensure wider dissemination and increased visibility.
  • Authors can take advantage of publishers' discounts negotiated by the Library to publish open access. The Library has recently confirmed its participation in several agreements that allow authors to publish open access without paying article processing charges, or for a discount. Please continue to refer to our website, under "Discounts with Publishers", as new agreements are announced
  • When possible, publish in journals without article processing charges. You can find journals that do not charge APCs on The Directory of Open Access Journals, an index of open access journals. Select "Journals without Fees" below the search bar on their homepage. 
  • We always encourage authors to choose to publish in journals that allow authors to retain copyright. 

Please contact the Scholarly Communication Librarian, Leigh-Ann Butler, for publishing advice. 

Please refer to our website for more information on the range of open access initiatives supported by the Library.

Library support for open access

In addition to financial support for uOttawa researchers, the library invests in the various open access initiatives listed here that benefit the global research community.

If you have an open access initiative to suggest, please contact us.

A history of financial support for open access publishing

As a leader in open access in Canada, the University of Ottawa has a strong record of supporting open access initiatives.

From 2010 to 2014, the Library managed the University’s Open Access Author Fund to support researchers publishing in open access. Over the course of its existence, it funded over 500 articles by 350 authors with money provided by the central administration and substantial additional financial support from the Library’s collections budget. 

Given that the effective date of the Tri-Agency OA Policy coincided with the beginning of our 2014-2015 fiscal year, the University took the opportunity to refocus and renew its commitment to OA in a responsible and ultimately more sustainable manner. Hence, uOttawa discontinued the Author Fund and redeployed over $100,000 to support the various strategic memberships and open access initiatives listed on this page. 

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