Open Access Publishing Fund Eligibility Guidelines

Journal eligibility: Criteria used to select an OA journal in which to publish mimics those to choose a traditional, subscription-based journal. That is, research the journal’s review process, reputation in the discipline, impact factor (or similar metric), and acceptance rate. In addition to the appropriateness of the subject content, these criteria may have bearing on the decision to submit to a particular journal. Requirements must be met by a journal for an individual to apply for OAP funds. The journal must:

  • Be listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (www.doaj.org),
  • Hold membership in the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (www.oaspa.org/members.php) or demonstrate its adherence to the Code of Conduct (www.oaspa.org/conduct.php),
  • Publish its standard fee schedules, and
  • Waive its article processing fee in cases of financial hardship, as evidenced by its public policy.

Journals that offer authors the option of paying a fee to make a subscription-based article freely available online (i.e., the “hybrid” model) are not eligible.

Author eligibility: Who is eligible?

  • Any Mason faculty member
  • Registered graduate students
  • Post-doctoral fellows

An individual whose article has been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed open access journal in which the article is immediately available online is eligible to apply. To apply, an author must complete and submit an OA Publishing Fund request form, with a copy of the publisher’s invoice for the article processing fee, to:

Claudia Holland, Head, Copyright Resources Office
Johnson Center Library
MSN 1A6

Applicants will be notified of funding approval. Payment will be made directly to the publisher.

Fees are pro-rated for multi-authored articles. That is, if more than one author from Mason applies for funding support for the same article, the article processing fee will be divided equally, up to the $3,000/article cap.

For more information on the Open Access Publishing Fund, contact Claudia Holland at chollan3@gmu.edu or call 703-993-2544.