Applications Now Open for Supporting Open Access Research (SOAR) 2025 Fund

The UMass Amherst Libraries are accepting applications for the Supporting Open Access Research (SOAR) Fund. The deadline for Round 1 applications is October 25, 2024; Round 2 applications are due April 11th, 2025. This year, Nandita Mani, Dean of Libraries, increased the fund to $30,000 based on historical use and current trends in scholarly publishing. In the coming year as a pilot project, $5,000 of the total fund will be dedicated to author publishing charges for Open Access (OA) monographs in recognition of the distinct editorial workflows and higher costs of open access monograph publication. For full details on eligibility requirements, award determination criteria, and the application form, visit the SOAR Fund guide. 

The SOAR Fund was established by the Libraries in 2014 to support open access publication of journal articles, books, and book chapters in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Faculty, staff, and students who are the corresponding author of an open access publication listed above are invited to apply for funding to cover their publisher’s author processing charge (APC).  

The Libraries are committed to open scholarship. Over the 2024 academic year, 19 awards were granted to authors representing 14 departments at UMass Amherst. A bibliography provides links to funded works since SOAR’s inception.