Research Publication Subvention Funding
Service Overview
The University of Oklahoma is dedicated to increasing the ability of researchers at all levels to publish their work with fully open-access publishers. The OU Libraries’ Subvention Funding Program provides financial support for OU faculty and researchers to offset the costs associated with publishing in open access venues. This program ensures equitable access to high-quality, peer-reviewed research while promoting the principles of open scholarship. The Subvention Funding Program reflects OU Libraries’ commitment to reducing financial barriers in academic publishing and supporting faculty in disseminating their work to a global audience.
What We Offer
Open access publications are free for all readers, but publishing is not free. A variety of open access payment models exist, and sometimes the costs are the responsibility of the author or their associated institution. Colleges, departments, and individuals are expected to fund publication costs via external grants and the Sponsored Research Incentive (SRI). However, the university recognizes that such funding may not be available or sufficient in all cases, particularly for disciplines that have limited access to external support. Consequently, the OU Open-Access Research Publication Fund helps ensure that all open-access peer-reviewed scholarly work produced at OU is formally published.
- Variety of funding available for books, journals, and articles
- Non-open-access publication funding may be supported, with limitations
- Opportunities for everyone, from undergraduate students to faculty and staff
Eligibility
Eligibility is dependent on the type of funding you are applying for. Applicants requesting funding for publication costs related to open access journals and books are only eligible if they lack other sources of support, such as external grants or department and college resources.
Please note:
- Published works must be licensed with a Creative Commons license.
- A copy of the article will be posted by University Libraries personnel in the university's institutional repository, SHAREOK, for maximum visibility and preservation.
- Authors are required to acknowledge the funder(s) within the final publication. Applicants will receive the required acknowledgment once their funding is approved.
- Applications should be received prior to publication (before proofs).
Types of Funding Available
Cost Covered and Additional Guidelines
Costs covered: typesetting, printing, editing, indexing, translation, recording, mixing, images/graphics, permissions/rights, production subvention.
Applicants are responsible for securing any remaining necessary funding from their college and department, and are encouraged to discuss funding availability and process with college and department representatives before submitting an application for subvention funding.
All authors may only receive funding once per year and each publication may only receive one author's funding.
Who Can Apply
Tenure-track, tenured, research, renewable term, and emeriti faculty; post-docs; staff; graduate students (Norman campus & Norman campus programs at OU-Tulsa) can apply.
Maximum Fiscal Year Funding Available
$3,000 per book
Funder(s) and Required Acknowledgment
Funders: Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships (OVPRP) and Office of the Provost.
Required Acknowledgment: "Financial support was provided from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships and the Office of the Provost, University of Oklahoma."
Cost Covered and Additional Guidelines
Costs covered: Open access book fees.
Proposals for new books will be evaluated biannually (mid-October and mid-March). Those utilizing a university press will receive greater consideration. Previously published works are ineligible. One award each year is reserved for eligible DFCAS faculty members.
Who Can Apply
Tenure-track, tenured, research, renewable term, and emeriti faculty; post-docs; staff (Norman campus & Norman campus programs at OU-Tulsa) can apply.
Maximum Fiscal Year Funding Available
$15,000 per book
Funder(s) and Required Acknowledgment
Funders: Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences (DFCAS), Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships (OVPRP), and OU Libraries.
Required Acknowledgment: "Financial support was provided from the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships, and University Libraries, University of Oklahoma."
Cost Covered and Additional Guidelines
Costs covered: Open access book fees.
All authors may only receive funding once per year, and each publication may only receive one author's funding.
Who Can Apply
Tenure-track, tenured, research, renewable term, and emeriti faculty; post-docs; staff; students (Norman campus & Norman campus programs at OU-Tulsa) can apply.
Maximum Fiscal Year Funding Available
$2,000 per book
Funder(s) and Required Acknowledgment
Funder: OU Libraries
Required Acknowledgment: “Financial support was provided by the OU Libraries' Open Access Fund.”
Cost Covered and Additional Guidelines
Costs covered: Typesetting, printing, editing, indexing, translation, recording, mixing, images/graphics, permissions/rights, production subvention, journal page charges, front cover illustrations.
Applicants are responsible for securing any remaining necessary funding from their college and department, and are encouraged to discuss funding availability and process with their college and department.
All authors may only receive funding once per year, and each publication may only receive one author's funding.
Approved on a case-by-case basis.
Who Can Apply
Tenure-track, tenured, research, renewable term, and emeriti faculty, and permanent professional/technical staff members holding the terminal degree appropriate to their discipline (Norman campus & Norman campus programs at OU-Tulsa) who are the corresponding author can apply.
Maximum Fiscal Year Funding Available
Varies
Funder(s) and Required Acknowledgment
Funders: Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships (OVPRP) and Office of the Provost.
Required Acknowledgment: "Financial support was provided from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships and the Office of the Provost, University of Oklahoma."
What does this cover?
Articles which will become open-access after an embargo period.
Cost Covered and Additional Guidelines
Costs covered: Article processing charges (APC).
Applicants are responsible for securing any remaining necessary funding from their college and department. They are encouraged to discuss funding availability and process with college and department representatives before submitting an application for subvention funding.
All authors may only receive funding once per year, and each publication may only receive one author's funding.
Who Can Apply
Tenure-track, tenured, research, renewable term, and emeriti faculty; post-docs; staff; graduate students (Norman campus & Norman campus programs at OU-Tulsa) who are the corresponding author can apply.
Maximum Fiscal Year Funding Available
$1,500 per article
Funder(s) and Required Acknowledgment
Funders: Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships (OVPRP) and Office of the Provost.
Required Acknowledgment: "Financial support was provided from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships and the Office of the Provost, University of Oklahoma."
What does this cover?
Articles which are immediately open-access upon publication.
Cost Covered and Additional Guidelines
Costs covered: Open access fees.
All authors may only receive funding once per year, and each publication may only receive one author's funding.
Who Can Apply
Tenure-track, tenured, research, renewable term, and emeriti faculty; post-docs; staff; students (Norman campus & Norman campus programs at OU-Tulsa) who are the corresponding author can apply.
Maximum Fiscal Year Funding Available
$3,000 per article
Funder(s) and Required Acknowledgment
Funder: OU Libraries
Required Acknowledgment: “Financial support was provided by the OU Libraries' Open Access Fund.”
How to Apply
You can apply online by submitting the Subvention Funding Application. Please see the below guide for detailed explanation of the fields if any questions arise while filling out the form and if you need additional questions answered please feel free to email subventionfunding@ou.edu.
Application Form Tips
Subject field: This is a mandatory field. Please feel free to put in "Application for Subvention Funding"
or something similar.
Details field: This field is not required but if your request has any peculiarities or if you're applying for our case-by-case journal page charges please feel free to put anything relevant here.
Department/College field: Please list both the department and college you are with in full, for example, Department of Political Science/Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences.
Reimbursement Procedure
Please note: Due to the end of the fiscal year on June 30th, applications received at this time may take additional time to be reimbursed.
Reimbursement is made after publication and proper documentation of publication fees payment is received. Documentation must indicate payment from a university fund in the form of a copy of the OU Activity Report showing the expenditure line and cash line with the full chartfield spread. We are unable to reimburse payments made with a personal credit card, personal check, or similar form of personal payment, or from institutions other than OU. We are unable to reimburse more than the invoiced amount. Applicants are responsible for securing the remaining funding from their college and department and are encouraged to discuss funding availability and process with college and department representatives before submitting an application for funding. Reimbursement requirements are explained in full when funding is approved.
Contact Information
Subvention Funding Team
FAQ
Open access increases the visibility, readership, and impact of an author's works, democratizing access across all institutions, regardless of size or budget.
Subvention funding now supports hybrid and immediate open access, replacing the previous hybrid and gold open-access models. Please see the respective funding details for definitions.
We now require that the applicant for funding be the corresponding author of the article.
You can apply for funding once every fiscal year.
No, each article can receive funding from only one author.
Yes! Even for a non-OA journal, we may be able to help fund these situations.
APC stands for Article Processing Charge. In this context, an APC is any cost by the journal associated with publishing your article as open access. Even if the journal calls one part or all of their charge something different, we use this term as a catch-all on our end.
Yes! Thanks to support from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships (VPRP) and the Provost’s office, we are able to support such books as well.
Yes! Graduate students, and in some cases even undergraduate students, are eligible for subvention funding. Please see the funding details on this page for specifics.
Unfortunately, funding limits are firm, and researchers will need to work with their college and department to cover any difference between the cost and the maximum reimbursement available.