Open Access Publishing Fund

Fund Updates:

• 8 April 2022: The UCSF Open Access Fund has officially shut down, since the funds are over-committed for the fiscal year. The Library will not be resuming the fund in the new fiscal year due to budget limitations. This does not impact publisher agreements that cover or discount open access publishing fees for UCSF authors. Those agreements remain active, and additional publisher agreements are forthcoming.
  • Authors who do not have funding to pay for open access may be able to request a fee waiver from the journal
  • Provide this letter to the journal as validation that the UCSF Fund is no longer providing awards
  • Contact the Library if you have any questions

• 1 April 2022: The UCSF Open Access Fund is nearly fully spent. We are not accepting new applications until we assess the budget situation and determine if we can take any more applications this fiscal year. This does not impact publisher agreements that cover or help cover open access publishing fees for UCSF/UC authors - those agreements remain active. See all open access publisher agreements and discounts. 

• 30 March 2022: Due to a surge in demand, we are faced with the possibility of a depletion of funds before the end of the fiscal year. To ensure that funds are going to authors who are not part of a research grant and who truly need the funds, the Fund can now only reimburse the award applicant (the first author) through UCSF MyExpense. See details. 

• 30 November 2021: The Fund is active and accepting applications for fiscal year 2021-2022. Due to reductions in the budget, modifications have been made to who is eligible to apply for funding, effective 1 December 2021:
  • Journal articles: students, postdocs, and staff (see all job series) who are first authors on journal articles
    • Authors meeting the eligibility and publication requirements may receive up to $2000 per scholarly article
  • Books and book chapters: all UCSF personnel and students, including faculty, may continue to apply for up to $5000 towards publishing an open access book or $2000 for a book chapter

• Faculty and all authors are eligible to receive open access funding support through UC-publisher agreements (which operate separately from this Fund) that include open access publishing for UC corresponding authors. See a complete list of OA publishing discounts available to UCSF authors. All UC authors may also share a version of their published articles through UC's open access policies. 

Please contact us if you have questions about these changes or to find out more about what funding support is available to you. 

The UCSF Open Access Publishing Fund helps cover open access (OA) publication fees for UCSF authors who do not have grant or other funds available to cover them. It is funded and run by the UCSF Library. To apply for funds, read through the Eligibility & Guidelines and Application & Payment pages then fill out the application form.

Funding source

The UCSF Academic Senate provided funding from 2015-2019, supplemented by the Library since 2017. As of 2020, the Library is the sole source of funding. See the 2017 announcement for the Fund's background since Academic Senate funding was provided in May 2015. 

Program goals

• Provide grants to UCSF authors to defray open access publishing charges when other funding is not available
• Foster greater dissemination of the work of UCSF scholars
• Encourage author control of copyright through OA publishing
• Provide opportunities for the UCSF community to engage in discussion about OA publishing models and wider scholarly communication topics
• Support UCSF's commitment through the OA2020 Initiative to repurpose subscription expenditures towards OA publishing

See also the frequently asked questions as well as the publications funded.

Have a question about the availability of funds, eligibility of an open access journal, or otherwise about the Open Access Fund? Contact the Scholarly Communication team at the Library.