Financial document

Financial support for open access publishing

Support, discounts and other funding opportunities for authors.
Alert icon

Alert

We wish to inform you that as of August 31, 2023, the Library discontinued its institutional payment plan with Frontiers. Furthermore, as of September 30, 2023, the Library will cease its payment plan with BMC/SpringerOpen/Chemistry Central. After these dates, uOttawa authors will no longer be eligible for those publisher discounts.

For 2023-2024, the Library has updated the admissibility criteria for the Library Shared Support funding program for open access publishing. Applications will be accepted until April 2024 or until funds are fully committed. Please see below for further details.
Click here for more information.

Overview

  • 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 a direct financial support for open access publishing fees.
    • Authors can apply to the Library Shared Support Fund for financial assistance, details below.
  • 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.

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.

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

Person writing email

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.
Contact us

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

The Library is updating the admissibility criteria for the Library Shared Support Fund. This change is being made after analysis of uOttawa publication patterns, due to the increasing and unsustainable costs of the author-pays model, and in light of recent budget constraints.

The Library strives to maintain a balanced approach to open access investments, focusing on equitable and sustainable options for open access publishing beyond article processing charges.

For 2023-24, the Library will re-examine whether to continue the direct funding of article processing charges through the Library Shared Support Fund. 
 

Please note that we have updated the admissibility criteria for the Library Shared Support Fund. The following criteria will take effect May 2023:

  • Maximum $750 coverage for article processing charges per approved applicant for 2023-24. 
  • Limit of 2 grants per applicant per year.
  • Applicant must be a corresponding author affiliated with the University of Ottawa (faculty member, researcher, staff, current graduate student, postdoctoral fellow and / or adjunct professor affiliated with uOttawa).
  • Article must be peer-reviewed.
  • Coverage only accepted for publications in fully OA journals: 

Applications will continue to be received until April 2024, or until funds have been fully committed. 

  • Apply for Library Shared Support Fund here.
  • Applicants will normally receive an email approving or denying their funding request within 5 business days.
  • Approved applicants will receive details of the documentation required for reimbursement.
  • It is the author’s responsibility to pay the publisher invoice in its entirety and submit the required documentation to be reimbursed.
  • The Library reserves the right to refuse applications in which the publisher is deemed predatory. See criteria on deceptive publishers for more information.
  • The fund only covers the costs associated with open access publishing. Costs for reprints, submission fees, colour illustration fees, page charges, administrative charges, and other fees are not applicable.

The following options enable authors to comply with various open access policies, like the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications

  • Authors can deposit their publications in 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 in open access. The Library has recently confirmed its participation in several agreements that allow authors to publish open access without paying an article processing charge, or for a discount. 
  • When possible, publish in journals without article processing charges.
  • We always encourage authors to choose to publish in journals that allow authors to retain copyright

Please contact your research librarian or 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.

Other funding opportunities

Researchers may be eligible for further publication funding support from the following programs. Note that eligibility, terms and conditions vary from the Library's programs. Researchers should verify the criteria of each and inquire with the funding program administrator for any questions regarding eligibility and terms.

Open Access Publishing

The Faculty of Health Sciences will provide, on a competitive basis, financial assistance to support publications of quality academic manuscripts in open access journals. Faculty financial assistance is meant to cover only a portion of the cost of the open access publication.

Library support for open access

In addition to direct 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. 

Related links

chat loading...