Paying APCs: 8 Years of an Open Access Fund

Introduction: The University of Kansas began a pilot subvention fund for article processing charges (APCs) in 2012. In fiscal year 2015 (FY2015), the Open Access Authors Fund (OAAF) shifted from a pilot program to an established program and changed various requirements, the amount of funds available each month, and the review process to ensure that those early in their career had opportunities to publish openly. This article explores the OAAF from its re-conception to the end of FY2022. Methods: Applicants’ information is stored in a Google Sheet, which was exported to Microsoft Excel. Authors’ emails were replaced with random identifiers for deidentification. Pivot tables were created to support data analysis, and the “COUNT” and “AVERAGE” functions were used to summarize the statistics. Results: The OAAF received 473 applications and paid 173 awards during this period. Most applications and those earning funding came from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, with researchers at the medical school being the majority. APC fees increased through this 8-year period, causing the number of grants to decrease. Discussion: Requests for funds to publish openly increased, as did the fees charged by publishers. Graduate students received the largest number of grants and the highest total of awarded funds. Unsurprisingly, STEM fields asked for and received the most funding. Conclusion: Overall, the fund in its new configuration achieved its goal to provide funding to those assumed to need it most, but, by FY2022, it demonstrates that this model is no longer a desired method for researchers to participate in open access publishing.