An open access fund is a pool of money set aside by a university library to help cover open access publication charges on behalf of affiliated authors. Several universities across the United States have implemented OA publishing funds to support their faculty’s OA publishing efforts. Authors can generally apply for support from these funds when other funding sources, such as research grants, are unavailable.

The following UC campus libraries administer an OA fund to provide financial support to faculty and researchers:

• UC Berkeley: Berkeley Research Impact Initiative
• UC Davis: UC Davis Open Access Fund 
• UC Santa Barbara: UCSB Open Access Publishing Fund

Publishing discounts for UC authors

The UC Libraries have many agreements with publishers that reduce the fees authors have to pay to make their journal articles open access. These publishing agreements often cover the full cost or provide a discount on the fees. For more information about UC’s support for these fees, visit our page on OA Publishing Agreements and Discounts.

Other ways to make your article open access

See our page on how to Help Make Your Research Articles Freely Available to learn more about other options for providing open access to your work.