Through use of an open access author fund, York University Libraries directs a small portion of its collections budget to cover some author processing charges (APCs) for York researchers wishing to publish in open access journals. This fund is capped and no requests can be received until the following fiscal year once the annual allocation has been expended. While York University Libraries directly supports open access publishing via a number of investments and initiatives, our ability to support researchers with the costs incurred from publication in gold open access journals is limited and must be balanced against competing demands on our collections budget.
Due to the unprecedented number of applications received in the spring, summer, and fall of 2021, this capped fund is now fully expended and closed for the remainder of the 2021-2022 fiscal year. Consequently, the fund is no longer accepting applications at this time. Further details on the fund and plans for author processing charge funding during the 2022-2023 fiscal year will be provided on this page in April 2022.
About the York University Libraries OA Author Fund
Who can apply?
All York faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, staff, and post-docs who have had a peer-reviewed article accepted to an Open Access journal that meets the funding criteria. Students, early-career researchers, and early-career faculty that do not have access to research grant funds are especially encouraged to apply.
Where an article has multiple authors, the first author must be a York-affiliated researcher. York University Libraries will only fund one publication per year for each York-affiliated researcher.
Applications for research projects that have received major grant funding from Tri-Council agencies or any other major granting body that recognize APCs as eligible grant expenses are not eligible for funding under the terms of this fund. Only researchers with no other funding source to cover APCs will be given funding.
What does the fund cover?
The fund will cover Author Processing Charges (also called author’s fees or page fees) for articles published in gold open access journals that meet the following criteria:
a) The open access journal selected for publication should not charge subscription fees for any of its content. All articles published through the journal should be immediately available online at no cost to the reader.
b) The open access journal selected for publication should not be a hybrid journal. Hybrid journals are publications under subscription control for which authors of individual articles can pay an “open choice” fee to make their papers freely available to any reader. The Libraries will not cover any “open choice” fee.
c) The open access journal selected for publication shall not apply embargoes that limit open access to content for a specific time period after publication.
d) The open access journal selected for publication should provide authors the right to retain the copyright for their work. The fund aims to encourage authors to retain copyright so they can release their work under Creative Commons licensing. Please note that a copy of every funded paper will also be made available through York Space, York University's institutional repository.
How can I apply?
STEP 1: Please make sure that the journal to which you are submitting your article meets the criteria mentioned in the above-listed "What does the fund cover?" section.
STEP 2: Apply for funding using the Open Access Author Fund application form (closed until May 2022).
STEP 3: You will be notified within three business days about the outcome of your application. If your application is successful, remember to hold on to the invoice made out to you by the publisher. The invoice should be in your name.
STEP 4: Send the author fee invoice to the libraries by sending a message to opendeposit@yorku.ca. Please do not pay your own invoice. The libraries must pay the invoice directly, and we will not reimburse authors who have paid their own fees. If you are submitting an article for publication in an OA journal from BioMed Central, please note that York University Libraries has set aside discrete funds for articles published on this platform. The BioMed Central account number for York will be provided to authors once their applications have been approved via the form described above.
If you are not eligible to receive funding under the terms of this fund, you can still save on the costs of author processing charges by taking advantage of the various publisher discounts available to York authors through the Libraries. To learn more about your options for publishing in open access, contact us at opendeposit@yorku.ca. More information about research funded by the York University Libraries Open Access Author Fund can be found on YorkSpace.