After five years of successfully supporting faculty publications, VCU Libraries’ Open Access Publishing Fund will be decommissioned May 15. VCU authors can apply for funding up to that date. It is possible that the fund will be exhausted before May 15.

After then, funding from VCU Libraries will no longer be available to subsidize authors’ article processing charges (APCs). The fund is being decommissioned because while this funding has helped to support the publication of more than 100 open access articles, it is not a sustainable or scalable model that will foster strategic changes in the traditional scholarly publication ecosystem. In fact, more than 50 percent of  funded APCs were paid to the five large commercial publishers -- Sage, Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, and Springer -- which continued at the same time to charge significant subscription fees in addition to enjoying APC revenue for open access journal articles. VCU Libraries joins a growing number of research libraries, including the University of Virginia, that have discontinued open access fund subsidies for these reasons.

VCU Libraries will continue its arrangements in support of VCU authors who pay APCs for open access publishing in journals from these publishers:

VCU Libraries and VIVA, Virginia’s academic library consortium, have agreements with some publishers that provide VCU authors with full coverage or discounts for open access publishing fees. Learn about current opportunities for open access funding support.

While some publishers charge APCs to cover the cost of open access publishing, others allow authors to publish open access without cost. For help identifying and evaluating open access publications, including those without APCs, contact the library liaison or collections librarian for your subject area, or the Scholarly Communications Librarian.

VCU Libraries continues to advance open access through institutional memberships, library collections, consortia, outreach and Scholars Compass. Contact us if you are interested in how VCU Libraries can open up your work to a wider world of readers and increased impact.