ROAAP Guidelines
Who is eligible for the funding?
What articles are eligible for the funding?
What funding is available?
What if the research in the article was grant-funded?
What if there are multiple authors on an article from different institutions?
With what requirements must subsidized authors comply?
How do I apply?
When should I apply?
What if I am interested in obtaining a PeerJ Membership?
How do I get reimbursed?
Where can I read more about open access?
What if I have more questions?
Who is eligible for the funding?
The ROAAP Fund is available to current University of Illinois at Chicago faculty, researchers, staff, post-docs, and students.
A faculty member may not be awarded ROAAP funds more than twice in a fiscal year (as the submitter). Persons who leave the University of Illinois at Chicago are no longer eligible for funding if the article is published after they leave.
What articles are eligible for the funding?
ROAAP funds are available for articles to be published in scholarly peer-reviewed open access journals. Articles published in subscription-based journals, where for an additional fee the article can be made open access, do not qualify. Invited articles will not be covered by the fund. Articles resulting from research that was funded in whole or in part from (a) grant(s) are also not eligible. (See - "What if the research published in the article was grant-funded?" for more details.)
The ROAAP fund covers:
- Publication charges Open Access Journals (e.g. PLoS, BioMedCentral, Hindawi) -- the fund will provide full coverage for OA fees under $600, the fund will cover half of the OA publishing fee (up to $1,500) when the OA publishing fees is more than $600 (i.e. if the OA publishing fee is $3000, the ROAAP fund will cover $1,500).
- The Open Access Journals must meet the following standards
- The journal must be indexed in a major indexing and abstracting service such as Web of Science or Scopus.
- Have a policy to waive fees in cases of economic hardship.
- Offer a standard article fee schedule for public view.
- Be a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association OR adhere to its Code of Conduct.
- Provide unfettered (freely accessible) access to all peer-reviewed articles.
Funding is limited and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Approval for the use of the ROAAP fund will expire 6 months after use of the fund has been granted. If your article has not been published within 6 months of approval to use the ROAAP fund and as such, you have not submitted your invoice for reimbursement within six months of approval to use the funds, your funding will expire. If you know you will require an extension, email sgroote@uic.edu for a 6 month extension on use of the funds prior to the 6 month expiration. Failure to request an extension prior to the 6 month deadline will expire the approval. You will need to resubmit. Approval will be dependent upon availability of funds.
Approval of the use of the ROAAP fund is non- transferable to another article or the same article published in another journal.
What if the research published in the article was grant-funded?
This fund is available only for articles where the research was not grant-funded. This includes articles reporting research funded by a gift or a grant from a granting agency, foundation, or other institution (including UIC itself) that allows granted funds to be used for article processing fees (whether or not the particular grant had budgeted for such fees and whether or not sufficient grant funds remain), and articles funded by an institution that itself pays article processing fees on behalf of the author (such as Wellcome Trust).
What if there are multiple authors on an article from different institutions?
In the case of an article with multiple authors, the UIC author may apply for the funding.
With what requirements must subsidized authors comply?
Conditions of funding include:
- Making a copy of the published paper available within UIC’s institutional repository, INDIGO immediately upon publication.
- Citing the ROAAP Fund as a source of support within the article
- Approval of the use of ROAAP funding will expire after 6 months (see above). Approval of the use of the ROAAP fund is not transferable to another article or the same article published in another journal.
Use the ROAAP Submission Form to fill out your request (see tab at top of guide). The request will be reviewed for eligibility and the author will be informed whether it has been approved, pending available funds. (The form will typically not be available if funds are not available. Funds are distributed on a first come, first serve basis when the request qualifies.)
Preferably, you should apply when your article has been accepted by the journal and the funds are needed. We will review your application and respond within 5 to 10 working days. Published articles are not eligible for reimbursement.
Follow these instructions for reimbursement.
What if I am interested in obtaining a PeerJ Membership?
Yes, the ROAAP fund may be used to cover Peer J membership fees? - https://peerj.com/ Individuals may request the use of the ROAAP fund for individual PeerJ memberships by emailing UIC's Scholarly Communications Librarian, Sandy De Groote (sgroote@uic.edu. A PeerJ membership allows an author to pay a one- time publication fee to publish in Peer J. Membership selection would be made by the author, dependent on how many articles they think they will publish in a year. In return, the author must agree to review articles - the number of articles is dependent on the membership selected. Please see: https://peerj.com/pricing/#apc-membership-pricing for current pricing and requirements.
Authors looking for ACP charges from the ROAAP fund must apply using the same criteria used for ACP charges for other journals (see above).
Where can I read more about open access?
- Why consider Open Access Publishing?
- UIC University Library guide on Publishing and Scholarly Communication
- When Is Open Access Not Open Access?
- Equity for Open-Access Journal Publishing
What if I have more questions?
Please contact UIC's Scholarly Communications Librarian, Sandy De Groote (sgroote@uic.edu, 312-413-9494)
