A new fund sponsored by the Office of Research and the University Libraries is intended to encourage and assist publishing in open access journals, according to their Web site....
“The university pays twice for journal articles,” said [Linda Phillips, head of scholarly communication]. “We pay faculty to write articles, and then we pay high prices for subscriptions to the journals where they’re published.”
The fund, which was founded in the fall semester of last year, provides money to faculty and graduate students wishing to publish in an open access journal. According to the Web site, [some] open access publishers charge money to the authors rather than the readers to cover the costs of publishing.
The money for the fund comes from an opportunities fund used for the pursuit of various research and scholarly opportunities, said Gregory Reed, vice chancellor for research administration. The Open Access Fund, at the moment, contains $20,000 for assistance.
Another huge advantage, besides considerable financial savings, Phillips said, is that the author may keep the copyright of their material....
Recently, Phillips said, due to ever-increasing subscription fees sometimes numbering around $10,000 a month, the scholarly community has begun to seek out better ways of sharing their research....
Comments
All who support OA journals should support university funds to help faculty pay publication fees at fee-based OA journals. Kudos to all involved at the U of Tennessee.
On the other hand, any university which understands the need for OA should also adopt a strong policy to ensure green OA for its research output, or for the research that isn't already gold OA. Unlike a gold OA policy, a green OA policy covers all the peer-reviewed articles published by faculty, regardless of the journals in which they choose to publish.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
