We are delighted to announce that Simon Fraser University (SFU) has established an institutional membership agreement for open access publishing with Frontiers.

The Simon Fraser University Library (SFU Library) supports its researchers in making their research more widely available. As part of this support, Simon Fraser University has entered an institutional agreement with Frontiers. Under the terms of this agreement, eligible authors from Simon Fraser University may publish in any qualifying Frontiers journal with up to $2,500 CAD of the article processing charge (APC) covered by the Open Access Fund, and with a simplified process.

Eligible authors will benefit from a streamlined invoicing process – the invoicing from Frontiers is managed directly between Frontiers and the Open Access team at the SFU Library, and authors receive an invoice only if the APC exceeds the $2,500 CAD limit, in which case the SFU Library will invoice the corresponding author. In either case, Simon Fraser University and its researchers will benefit from a membership discount on APCs for articles covered by this agreement.

This agreement will further encourage Simon Fraser University authors to publish open access, increasing uptake of open access to the results of mostly publicly funded research, to the benefit of the scholarly community and the public at large, while reducing costs.

Information for authors:

To submit your article under this institutional agreement, please select _‘_Simon Fraser University’ as institutional payer in the invoice section when submitting your article. Frontiers will then verify your eligibility with the SFU Library, and if confirmed, the APC will be paid by the Library upon acceptance.

SFU authors are eligible for funding for up to two articles per calendar year through the Open Access Fund, with a limit of $2,500 CAD per article.

In addition, the following eligibility requirements apply:

• The SFU author must be the submitting or corresponding author and must be an eligible SFU author as described below. If the submitting author is not an eligible SFU author at the time of submission the Fund cannot be used.

• Current faculty, staff, graduate students, and, undergraduate students working under the supervision of a faculty member are eligible.

• Other eligible SFU authors include: visiting faculty, postdoctoral researchers, research associates, and adjunct professors. The article must be submitted while the author’s SFU affiliation is current.

• Students who have recently graduated will be eligible to use the Fund for articles submitted up to one year after the date listed on the approval page attached to their thesis.

Applicants are encouraged to exhaust other funding sources that can be used to pay for APCs before applying to the Fund. If an alternate funding source is available that permits payment of APCs, this source should be used to cover APCs before applying to the Fund. APCs for open access publishing are eligible expenses for Tri-Agency grants. See SFU Library’s tips and sample language for more information about requesting funds for open access publishing costs in your grant applications.

All authors must also meet the following criteria:

• Must confirm status of grant funds that could cover APCs before drawing on the Open Access Fund.

• The article must be the result of research completed as part of their work at SFU.

• Affiliation with SFU must be included in the published article.

• Allow the Library to deposit their published article in SFU’s research repository, Summit.

For information on whether your article is eligible under this agreement, or if you require any further details, please visit the Library’s webpage on scholarly publishing and open access or contact digital-scholarship@sfu.ca  

For information on Frontiers’ institutional agreements please visit our institutional membership page or contact institutions@frontiersin.org to discuss the possibilities for your organisation.