The School of Medicine Library (SOML) Open Article Fund is a pilot program that provides limited funding to cover the cost of article publication charges (APCs). These APCs are fees that authors typically pay to make their articles immediately available for others to read.
Support for Open Access
SOML aims to continue supporting the mission of University Libraries which has been an institutional leader in open access with the implementation of Digital Scholarship@UNLV in 2009. Their support of UNLV researchers through open access opportunities is a model for this pilot program to provide funding for the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine in achieving the school's goals of disseminating timely and important medical/health sciences scholarship.
Why does Open Access Publishing Matter?
Sharing research through open access provides benefits for authors (greater reach and use of their works), for UNLV (showcasing the research scholarship to potential students and faculty), and to the public, law and policy makers, non-profit organizations, health care providers, patients, and their caregivers/families by ensuring that research that could impact their decisions is readily available to them.
The SOML Open Article Fund is available to faculty, residents, and fellows at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV who are part of an author team with either medical students, other residents, fellows or other faculty. The SOML Open Article Fund will provide one award per author team per publication per fiscal year.
Individuals may publish in hybrid or fully open access medical and health sciences journals.
Please visit the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) to see if the journal you want to publish in is fully open access. If the journal of interest is not in DOAJ, be sure to check their For Authors or About section to see if they offer hybrid publishing (traditional and open access publishing). Below is a list of a few medical journal publishers that offer hybrid publishing models:
Eligibility Criteria:
Not Eligible:
The role of DigitalScholarship@UNLV (repository) requires that final articles must be added to Digital Scholarship@UNLV, the University’s open access repository. University Libraries Staff will coordinate this process.
Award limitations:
Eligible individuals can request up to $2,000 towards an APC. For this program we are offering 10 awards. If you have an APC that is more than the award limit, we recommend matching your funds through grant funding or department funding.
The School of Medicine Library Open Article Fund is funded by the School of Medicine Library state-funded collections budget. We have diverted a portion of the collection ($20,000) to support the research and scholarship mission of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine.
Because funds are provided from the School of Medicine Library’s state-funded collections budget, interested applicants will need to request funds from September 1st through May 1st (depending on funding availability). Applications will not be processed after May 1st to keep in line with processing deadlines of UNLV Libraries and the university.
If funds run out before May 1st the open access fund will re-open in the next fiscal year at a time determined by the School of Medicine Library.
Learn about the School of Medicine Library Open Article Fund on this page. Eligibility requirements and other information are provided here. To apply for funds, please complete the online application form. You will login with your UNLV affiliated email to access the form. You may preview the fund application questions below.
To apply, you will need:
To place a copy of the final published work in Digital Scholarship@UNLV
To acknowledge in the article that “The publication fees for this article were supported by the School of Medicine Library Open Article Fund."
That neither you nor your co-authors have grant funding that already supports article processing charges for this publication.
That the author team has not already received an award for the current fiscal year.
That this is not for a solo work.
That the article status is "ready for submission", "submitted", or "accepted".
That the publisher can be located as a Supplier for UNLV. [Search Here]
Ready to Apply?
Decision Authority. The School of Medicine Library will review Open Article Fund applications. Funding requests meeting the criteria described above and on the application form will be approved until funds are expended. If the library is unsure the criteria is being met, University Libraries will assist in the review. The content and topic of the article for which funding is being sought is not considered in the review.
Decision Timeline. While we expect to have a much faster turnaround time, please allow two weeks for a response to your application. Applications will be reviewed as they are received, in the order they are received.
We ask that recipients of the open access fund consider submitting their work (if eligible) to the DigitalScholarship@UNLV and include an acknowledgement in their manuscript that has the following statement: “The publication fees for this article were supported by the School of Medicine Library Open Article Fund."
Invoices should be addressed as follows and submitted to medlib@unlv.edu. Invoices will then be submitted and processed by UNLV Libraries. The Libraries will expedite payment (for up to the amount awarded) as quickly as possible. However, foreign publishers may take longer than U.S.-based publishers - see note below. Please note UNLV Libraries cannot process partial invoices. Invoices must be no more than the full award amount.
APCs greater than $2000. The maximum award for this fund is $2000. For awards that only partially cover the full article processing charge, you will be asked to supply a Workday Program Code and Spend Category to which the balance can be charged. This allows UNLV Libraries to pay the invoice in full with funding from multiple UNLV units. Splitting payments between internal (UNLV) and external (non-UNLV) units requires separate invoices.
***The library can only process initial invoice payments. It does not reimburse individual authors and UNLV does not allow partial payments to be made on invoices received.***
**Authors, please be aware that payment for domestic publishers takes a couple of weeks to process. Invoices are taking 30 days to be processed for payment. This is from the time the invoice is received in the medlib@unlv.edu email to the time the campus Accounts Payable office releases payment to the publisher.
Please address invoices to:
UNLV Libraries
4505 Maryland Pkwy
Box 457012
Las Vegas, NV 89154-70012
United States
The School of Medicine Library wishes to acknowledge the following individuals and departments who provided input and guidance for this initiative: