Open access central funds in UK universities

Abstract

This paper reports on the extent to which higher education institutions in the UK have set up central funds and similar institutionally co‐ordinated approaches to the payment of open access article‐processing charges. It presents data demonstrating that central funds have only been set up by a minority of institutions and that the number of institutions has not changed significantly between 2009 and 2011. It then explores the barriers to the establishment of such funds and discusses recent developments that might lower these barriers. Finally, it provides a case study of the development of the central fund at the University of Nottingham in the UK and considers the sustainability of such an approach.

How research funders can finance APCs in full OA and hybrid journals

“…Pinfi eld and Middleton report on the extent to which UK universities have established centralized funds and mechanisms for the handling of APCs. 10 Only 13% of responding universities had such systems in 2011. According to the study, the mean cost paid through the institutional fund at the University of Nottingham in 2010-2011 was £1,216.…”

Researchers’ Adoption of an Institutional Central Fund for Open-Access Article-Processing Charges

“…Further concerns have also been raised in the area of rationing of funds. In particular, questions of how decisions are made about which APCs to fund and who makes them in the case of limited funds have been raised as challenges (Pinfield & Middleton, 2012).…”

“…One response made to these challenges at institutional level is to manage funding and administration of APCs as part of an institution-wide APC "central fund" or "faculty publication fund" (Fernandez & Nariani, 2011;Monson, Highby, & Rathe, 2014;Pinfield, 2010;Pinfield & Middleton, 2012; Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition [SPARC], n.d.). Central funds are normally designed to encourage wider adoption of APC-funded OA publishing among researchers, while enabling the institution to monitor take-up and achieve administrative efficiencies through economies of scale.…”

Medical research charities and open access

“…22 Calculations are presented in Table 1. The data show signifi cant variation, with percentages as low as 0.5% to as high as 11.2% for an APC of £2,072.…”