Open Access Publishing Fund

Wake Forest University’s Open Access Publishing Fund assists Reynolda campus faculty who are publishing open access (OA) articles or books. A joint initiative of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library (ZSR) and the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs (ORSP), the fund was established in 2008 to support open access publishing and help remove cost barriers for Wake Forest faculty research.

Funds are available exclusively for open access publishing charges (APCs and BPCs). Costs such as indexing fees, image rights, or other supplemental publishing expenses are not covered. Applications must be submitted prior to publication. Post-publication reimbursement is not available.

Apply for funding

Criteria

  • Open to Reynolda campus faculty members only. Wake Forest Health Sciences faculty are not eligible.
  • Eligible publications include peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and book chapters
  • Articles must be published in fully open access journals. Journals that are subscription-based but offer a paid open access option (so-called ‘hybrid’ journals) are not eligible.
  • Journals must either be listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) or the publisher must be a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)
  • Publications must be made available immediately upon publication (no embargoes) and authors must retain copyright.
  • The applicant must be the lead author or corresponding author on the publication.
  • Federally-funded projects are eligible only when OA publishing costs are not allowable or not fully covered by the funding agency.

Cost Sharing

The fund supports faculty in different ways depending on the availability of external grant support:

  • If your publication is not supported by federal grants, ZSR will cover two-thirds of the APC, and the author’s department will be asked to cover the remaining one-third.
  • If your publication is federally funded but the grant does not cover publication costs, the APC will be split equally among ZSR, ORSP, and the author’s department—each contributing one-third.

If you have external grant funding (federal or otherwise) and your grant includes funds for article processing charges (APCs), you must use those funds first. The OA Fund cannot be used to duplicate coverage.

Funding Limits

  • Up to $3,000 for OA journal articles or book chapters
  • Up to $5,000 for OA books
  • One funded request per fiscal year per faculty member

Contact ZSR Library for additional information.

updated October 2025