SFU Central Open Access Fund

Scholarly Publishing and Open Access plus a stylized book with the open access symbol

 Update: Important changes to the SFU Central Open Access Fund

Beginning April 1st 2024, there will be significant changes to the SFU Central Open Access Fund. 

For details about the upcoming changes to eligibility and amounts, please visit Learn more about changes to the SFU Central Open Access Fund.

The SFU Open Access Fund is pleased to support SFU authors publishing in fully open access journals that charge Article Processing Charges. The Open Access Fund has been well used since it began in 2010. Since then, the open access publishing landscape has changed dramatically.

The Open Access Fund was reviewed in 2015-2016 as part of the work of the Open Access Advisory Committee.  The review included analyzing the usage data of the first five years of the fund, reviewing current best practices for similar open access publication funds, and surveying SFU researchers who have made use of the Open Access Fund in the past. In June 2016 the Senate Library Committee approved a series of changes to the OA Fund to help the fund continue to support a wide range of SFU researchers in a sustainable manner, while reflecting the changing nature of the open access publishing landscape.  These changes, outlined below, are effective as of August 2023.

To apply for funding to publish in an open access journal, please read the information below and complete the SFU Central Open Access Fund application form.

Description of the Fund

The SFU Central Open Access Fund (the Fund) supports SFU authors who wish to publish in Open Access (OA) journals and who are required to pay an article processing fee (APC).

The goals of the Open Access Fund are to:

  • Support authors who wish to publish and disseminate their research in an OA journal
  • Support authors in making the transition to OA publishing as a scholarly communication option
  • Offer equitable opportunities across campus disciplines
  • Reduce costs for publishing in OA journals

SFU encourages authors to choose OA avenues to disseminate their research either by archiving their work in a subject or institutional repository or by publishing in an open access journal. Funds are provided to help subsidize publication in OA journals which charge APCs.

Level of financial support

Each eligible SFU author may receive the following support:

  • Support for up to one article per calendar year
    • ​​​​​​​Please note, the guidelines for the Open Access Fund have recently changed (effective August 2023). Eligible SFU authors may request support for one article per year (previously, the guidelines allowed for two articles).  Learn more about the changes to the SFU Central Open Access Fund and upcoming fund review.
  • Support of up to $2500 (CDN) per article.  Any amount over the $2500 (CDN) will be the responsibility of the author.

Eligible applicants

  • The SFU author must be the submitting or corresponding author and must be an eligible SFU author as described below. If the submitting author is not an eligible SFU author at the time of submission the fund cannot be used.
  • Current faculty, staff, graduate students, and, undergraduate students working under the supervision of a faculty member are eligible.
  • Other eligible SFU authors include: emeritus professors, visiting faculty, postdoctoral researchers, research associates, and adjunct professors. The article must be submitted while the author’s SFU affiliation is current.
  • Students who have recently graduated will be eligible to use the fund for articles submitted up to one year after the date listed on the approval page attached to their thesis.

Applicants are encouraged to exhaust other funding sources that can be used to pay for open access fees before applying to the Fund. If an alternate funding source is available that permits payment of submission or publication fees, this source should be used before applying to the fund. Open access fees are eligible expenses for Tri-Agency grants. See our tips and sample language for more information about requesting funds for open access costs in your grant applications.

All authors must also meet the following criteria:

  • Must confirm status of grant funds that could cover APC’s before drawing on the Open Access Fund.
  • The article must be the result of research completed as part of their work at SFU.
  • Affiliation with SFU must be included in the published article.
  • Allow the Library to deposit their published article in SFU’s research repository Summit.

Eligible publications

  • Authors are free to publish in the journal of their choice. This Fund covers only fees associated with open access publishing and does not cover additional charges beyond the basic APC, such as those charged for including colour plates, longer articles, submission fees, or excess page charges.
  • The Fund can be used to pay APCs in fully OA journals (aka Gold journals). That is, in which ALL of the journal content is freely available online immediately to the reader and includes download and reuse rights.
  • Eligible journals will be those in the Directory of Open Access Journals, or those whose editorial policies meet the criteria for inclusion in DOAJ

The Library has established memberships or direct invoicing arrangements with some of the most prominent open access publishers. If you submit an article to one of the publishers listed below, the library's membership arrangement will cover the article processing charges (to a maximum of $2500 CAD) if you are eligible.

The fund can cover article processing charges for book chapters, provided the entire publication is open access. Please contact digital-scholarship@sfu.ca with any questions if you intend to apply for funding to support an open access book chapter.

*Please note, larger publishers produce many journals with a range of editorial practices and standards. We recommend that authors assess journals individually before choosing to submit their work, regardless of the Library’s membership with a specific publisher. For information about assessing a journal, please see our Publishing Choices webpage on the Scholarly Publishing site.

Ineligible publications

  • Hybrid journals: subscription-based publications for which authors can pay an “open choice” fee to make their individual papers freely available to any reader. Although publishers claim to redirect the funds from these APCs to reduce the cost of subscriptions and licenses, there is insufficient evidence that this is actually happening.
  • Journals with embargoes limiting Open Access content for a specific time period after publication
  • Journals which require researchers to sign over copyright to their work

Application process

For journals with whom the Library has a membership or direct billing option, please apply via the article submission process.

For all other journals, please complete the SFU Central Open Access Fund application form.

More information

Open Access publisher agreements and discounts
Publisher discounts available to SFU authors for open access publishing.

For more information please contact:
oa-fund@sfu.ca