Cornell University Library provides funds to eligible Cornell authors to cover reasonable article processing fees for publication in open access scholarly journals and books when funds are not otherwise available.
The Cornell Open Access Publishing Fund:
- is available to any non-tenured faculty, academic staff, or student author currently affiliated with Cornell’s Ithaca campus.
- can apply to publication and processing fees for scholarly, peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and books.
- may be used to pay processing fees associated with publishing peer-reviewed scholarship that will be freely available after publication.
- will reimburse an individual author for costs associated with only one publication (single article, chapter, or book) per fiscal year.
About the Cornell Open Access Publication Fund
The Cornell Open-Access Publication (COAP) Fund supports Cornell authors who want to make their scholarly work available to all readers immediately upon publication by paying reasonable publication and submission fees required of many open access publication venues. COAP is affiliated with the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity.
Why is this needed?
Currently, scholarly journals are supported through a combination of page fees and subscriptions. If these journals are to convert to open access, they must be assured that there is a steady stream of revenue available from author fees. COAP, along with publication subsidies from granting agencies, can help provide that assurance.
While much of the early growth in open-access publishing was in the journal arena, the past few years have seen the establishment of a number of new venues for open-access books. By contributing to publication fees for open-access books by Cornell authors, the COAP program can encourage this development. Extending support to open-access books also broadens the disciplinary reach of the COAP program, advancing open access in Cornell fields where the monograph is the fundamental publication format.
Eligibility Requirements
Author Eligibility
Non-tenured faculty members, academic staff members, and graduate, professional, and undergraduate students affiliated with Cornell’s Ithaca campus are all eligible for COAP funding. At this time, authors affiliated with other parts of Cornell are not eligible for COAP support. At present, Cornell alumni are generally not eligible unless they are currently employed or attending graduate school at Cornell. Authors who completed the research underlying their publication while at Cornell, but have left the University within 18 months of the work being accepted for publication, may be eligible for COAP support; eligibility is decided on a case-by-case basis.
Publication Eligibility
COAP funds may be used to pay processing fees associated with publishing peer-reviewed scholarship on an open-access basis. Eligible open-access publishers may operate on a not-for-profit or a commercial basis, but the entire publication where the COAP-supported work appears must be freely available online, with no charge to readers or readers’ institutions for access.
Journals
To be eligible, a journal must meet these additional requirements:
- Is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals.
- Is published by a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association or a publisher that adheres to its Code of Conduct.
- Provides immediate, unfettered access to all peer-reviewed articles. In other words, journals with a hybrid open access model (some articles in the journal are open, some are not) or delayed open access model (articles become open after an embargo period) are not eligible.
- Has a publicly-available standard article fee schedule.
- Has a policy to waive fees in case of economic hardship.
Books
Because the open-access environment for books is still evolving, eligibility will be decided on a case-by-case basis. In general, books supported by COAP funds should be openly accessible immediately upon online publication. In the case of contributed chapters to a multi-author volume, the entire volume must be published on an open-access basis in order for individual chapters to be considered for COAP funding.
Unsure if you meet the requirements for funding?
Authors may consult with the COAP administrator prior to submitting an application to determine eligibility, which will be decided on a case-by-case basis. Use our contact form (Cornell login required), or contact Peter McCracken, COAP fund manager, at coapfund@cornell.edu.
Limitations to the COAP fund
The most that the COAP Fund will reimburse for a single article, chapter, or book is $3,000.
Articles, chapters, or books for which alternate publication funding is available are not eligible for COAP funds. This includes works whose underlying research was funded by grants or gifts that allow grant funds to be used for publishing and processing fees (regardless of whether such fees were included in the budget of the particular grant that supported the research). COAP funds are intended to support open access as a funding source of last resort.
The COAP Fund will reimburse an individual author for costs associated with only one publication (single article, chapter, or book) per fiscal year.
In the case of an article, chapter, or book with multiple authors, each author is responsible for a prorated portion of any publishing fees. For example, for an article with three authors that is to appear in a journal with a $3,000 publication fee, each author is responsible for $1,000 of that fee. If two of the authors are eligible Cornellians, each may enter an application for $1,000. If both apply, $2,000 will be sent to the journal. If the journal has a $6,000 publication fee, the $3,000 per article cap will apply and each eligible Cornell author may only apply for $1,000.
Applying to COAP
Before You Apply
Has your work been accepted for publication already?
An article, chapter, or book must be accepted for publication by an eligible open-access publisher before an application for COAP funding is submitted. An application may be submitted from the time the author is notified of acceptance for publication until twelve months after an article, chapter, or book is published.
Is the publisher eligible for COAP funds?
Authors must attest when applying for funds that the publication complies with all COAP eligibility requirements.
Have you already tried to get funding elsewhere?
COAP is intended to be a funding source of last resort. Publications whose underlying research was funded by grants or gifts that allow funds to be used for processing or publication fees (regardless of whether such fees were included in the budget of the particular grant that supported the research) are not eligible for COAP funding.
After You Apply
Once a request has been approved, the author should forward a copy of the publisher’s invoice to the COAP contact. The Library can either pay the publisher directly for the amount of the award or reimburse the author. For reimbursement, the author must provide a Cornell departmental account to which the funds can be transferred.