Libraries

Supporting Open Access Research (SOAR) 2025 Fund: Round 1 Awardees Announced, Funds Available for Round 2

The UMass Amherst Libraries are accepting applications for the Supporting Open Access Research (SOAR) Fund. Round 2 applications are due April 11, 2025. For full details on eligibility requirements, award determination criteria, and the application form, visit the SOAR Fund guide. 

 

The following publications were awarded funds for open access publication from the first round of applications: 

  • Hatami, F., & Moradi, M. (2024). Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Models for Predicting Viscosity in Tri-n-Butyl Phosphate Mixtures Using Experimental Data. Computation, 12(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/computation12070133  
  • Chun, J. W., Lee, A. R., & Chung, Y. J. (2024). Can COVID-19 Be a Turning Point for More Sustainable Trends? Exploring Changes in Recycling Discourse Pre- and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea. Sage Open, 14(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241286971  
  • Adawudu, E.A., Aidam, K., Oduro, E., Miezah, D., Vorderstrasse, A. (2024). The Effects of Ghana’s Free Maternal and Healthcare Policy on Maternal and Infant Healthcare: A Scoping Review. Health Services Insights. 17. https://doi.org/10.1177/11786329241274481  
  • Pfadenhauer, W.G., DiRenzo, G.V. and Bradley, B.A. (2024), Human activity drives establishment, but not invasion, of non-native plants on islands. Ecography, 2024: e07379. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.07379     
  • Bathrick, R.E., Johnson, J.A., Ruthrauff, D.R. et al. (2024). Migratory strategies across an ecological barrier: is the answer blowing in the wind?. Movement Ecology 12(70). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-024-00509-2  

 

This year, Nandita Mani, Dean of Libraries, increased the fund to $30,000 based on historical use and current trends in scholarly publishing. As a pilot project this year, $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. 

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.