The James A. Gibson Library is allocating $10,000 to support Brock scholars who wish to publish their work in open access journals.
Open Access (OA) resources are free, unrestricted digital materials available online to anyone. OA benefits researchers and members of the public, but disseminating or publishing research still costs money, often in the form of “author,” “processing,” or “submission.” The Library has established a one-time grant opportunity to promote OA and help Brock researchers address such fees.
The Library will award a minimum of four grants, each a maximum of $2,500. Full- and part-time Brock faculty members, as well as graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, may apply. This grant is intended to support researchers with limited or no funding. The Library will support as many successful applications as possible while funds last.
Richard Mitchell, associate professor in Child and Youth Studies, has benefited from the funding.
“I find the open access model a very egalitarian form of publishing,” he said. “My work becomes global and can be read by anyone with an Internet connection, not just by those who subscribe to a particular journal. It has a more democratic peer-review and allows for dissemination of international research findings in the timeliest manner through the world wide web. Further, open access does not have a large carbon footprint in terms of paper being mailed back and forth and hard copies then needing to be delivered by various means of transport.”
