Campus Open Access Funds: Experiences of the KU “One University” Open Access Author Fund

In the summer of 2012, librarians from the Lawrence and Kansas City campuses of the University of Kansas (KU) proposed the creation of a KU “One University” Open Access Fund (OA Author Fund) to support open access publishing for its faculty, students, and staff. KU is a major public research and teaching institution of 28,000 students and 2,600 faculty on five campuses (Lawrence, Kansas City, Overland Park, Wichita, and Salina) (http://ku.edu/about), and has been a leader in open access initiatives for many years. A working group of librarians came together to create and implement a pilot project to explore the administration and impact of an open access publishing fund on KU authors, and the fund was launched in October 2012. DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT This report documents the group’s experience in developing eligibility criteria and administering the OA Fund. Here we provide insight into our efforts implementing the project, funding results, and plans for continuation. We share the results of the first two years of the OA Author Fund pilot and the lessons learned about open access fund administration. NEXT STEPS At the close of the pilot in May 2014, the OA fund review team solicited feedback from a faculty advisory group regarding grant recipients, allocation of funds by discipline, and the application process. Based on our findings, we revised eligibility criteria to create a more equitable funding opportunity for the second pilot. The fund was re-launched using these new criteria in Fall of 2014