Document Type

Presentation

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Utah Academic Library Conference

Author ORCID Identifier

David Advent: ORCID

Location

Orem, Utah

Publication Date

10-17-2025

Abstract

Utah State University (USU) Libraries established an open access (OA) fund in 2012 with the goal of helping USU authors offset the costs of publishing OA articles. The fund proved to be enormously popular, and funds were expended quickly each year—most recently being exhausted in less than 72 hours. In recognition of this unsustainability, as well as concerns about the rapidly changing role of OA and copyright in scholarly publishing, USU Libraries initiated significant changes to the fund. This lightning talk will share how we identified and assessed challenges with the existing OA fund, the modifications we implemented, our plans for impact assessment, and how these revisions fit within larger efforts to advance open publishing on our campus. One critical shift was the transition from a first-come, first-served application process to a need- and merit-based system guided by a comprehensive evaluation rubric, with priority given to students, pre-tenure faculty, and applicants who deposited post-prints of their work in USU’s institutional repository. Messaging about the fund emphasizes that it is just one of many ways the library supports OA publishing. These updates aim to make our funding process more efficient and equitable while strengthening the foundation for a more robust OA scholarly ecosystem on our campus.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Download

Share

COinS