COPE FAQ

• What is Open Access?
• What is COPE?
• Who are the other members of COPE?
• Who is funding COPE at the University of Michigan?
• Why is the U-M Library participating in COPE?
• Who is eligible for funding?
• What is eligible for funding?
• What is a ‘fully open’ journal?
• How much funding is provided?
• How do I receive publication fee funding from grants?
• Do some journals provide discounts to U-M authors?
• How many articles can I receive funds to publish in Open Access journals through COPE?
• How do I apply for funding?
• My question wasn't answered.

What is Open Access?

Open Access (OA) literature is peer-reviewed, scholarly work that is available online for free, immediate, and permanent access. Anyone who has access to the Internet may read, download, store, print, use, and data-mine the digital content of Open Access works. For more, see the Library Copyright Office's page on Open Access.

What is COPE?

The Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity is a consortium of universities that pledge to support the publication of scholarly articles in Open Access journals by subsidizing author publication fees. See http://www.oacompact.org/compact/

Who are the other members of COPE?

For a complete list, see http://www.oacompact.org/signatories/

• Cornell University

• Dartmouth College

• Harvard University

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• University of California at Berkeley

• University of Ottawa

• Columbia University

• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Who is funding COPE at the University of Michigan?

The U-M Library is providing the funding.

Why is the U-M Library participating in COPE?

In our desire to encourage Open Access resources, the Library sees COPE as an opportunity to change the incentives of publishing vis a vis Open Access journals that require authors to pay a fee. More information on why the consortium was started can be found on its website: http://www.oacompact.org/

Who is eligible for funding?

All University of Michigan faculty, post-doctoral researchers, graduate and professional students, staff members, and students.

What is eligible for funding?

Simply put, peer-reviewed scholarly articles that are published in open-access journals are eligible. Anyone may apply, but the Library prefers to support work:

• where the author retains copyright.

• which will appear in fully open journals, and is accessible immediately upon publication.

• for which grant funding could not be applied to publishing costs.

• that the author commits to depositing in open access repositories (e.g. Deep Blue).

• for which the open access publication fee is less than $1500.

What is a ‘fully open’ journal?

A fully open journal is one that is freely available electronically to anyone. Most are listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (http://www.doaj.org) and publications by members of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (http://www.oaspa.org).

How much funding is provided?

Up to $3000 per submission. However, if some requirements are not met, then a smaller portion will be provided based on the following criteria:

• Retaining Rights: If you will not retain copyright or the right to distribute the work we will fund the lesser of $1000 or 50% of the publisher’s open access fee. See the U-M Author's Addendum on how to retain certain copyrights to your work.

• Publish in fully open journals: An open journal is one for which all peer-reviewed content is available freely to readers. If the work will appear in a “hybrid” journal — one for which some of the peer-reviewed work is only available to paid subscribers — we will fund the lesser of $1000 or 50% of the publisher’s fee.

• Assure access is immediate upon publication: If access to the published article is not immediate we will fund the lesser of $1500 or 50% of the publisher’s fee. If the publisher will delay access longer than 12 months, we will not provide any funding.

• Use grant funding wherever possible: If your grant funding could have been applied to publishing charges, we will fund the lesser of $1500 or 50% of the publisher’s fee. We will only do this once for an author/group of authors, since such fees should be included in future grant applications.

How do I receive publication fee funding from grants?

To have your publication fees covered by a grant it is important to make them a line item in your budget before submission. Simply put a reasonable and expected publication fee amount. Many grant applications have a place within the budget for dissemination costs and publication fees would be covered by that. If there is not a logical spot to put publications fees in the budget, simply add it as a line item before submission.

Do some journals provide discounts to U-M authors?

YES! Thanks to MLibrary's membership subscription at the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and BioMed Central (BMC) all U-M authors receive a discount on their publication fee. Additionally, as MLibrary has a full license to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) U-M authors receive a discount. Remember: It is always a good idea to make sure you did receive the discount as mistakes do happen.

How many articles can I receive funds to publish in Open Access journals through COPE?

Though we currently place no cap on the number of publications we will support from an author in a given year, our goal is to support as many U-M authors in as many disciplines as possible. Thus, we will give priority to authors, grants, or research groups that we have not yet funded.

How do I apply for funding?

Very simply! Go back to the main U-M Library COPE page, fill in the short form, and click Submit.  

Note that payments are disbursed as reimbursements to departments by short code rather than to individuals.

My question wasn't answered.

Please contact Copyright Office staff at the University of Michigan Library at cope-fund@umich.edu