Davis Open Access Book Fund

Funding for Open Access Monographs

Through the Davis Open Access Book Fund, the library offers funding support for author fees to publish open access monographs. Funding is available for up to three monographs per year.

This initiative builds on the success of UC Davis’ participation in a five-year national pilot, TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), which was designed to help cultivate a thriving ecosystem of high-quality, peer-reviewed, and freely accessible scholarly books. Through TOME, the UC Davis Library supported open access publication of more than a dozen scholarly monographs from 2018 to 2022, with several more in production.

The Davis Open Access Book Fund continues the library’s commitment to supporting open access monographs, under similar guidelines and eligibility requirements.

Eligibility Requirements

The fund is open to current UC Davis Academic Senate faculty and Academic Federation members. Eligible individuals are limited to one grant.

The fund will provide up to $15,000 for open access monographs that are:

• Published by a press that participated in the TOME initiative (see the list of participating publishers);
• Unpublished as of the application date;
• Published in industry-standard, DRM-free digital formats (to include at least ePub and/or PDF with a text layer) at the time of first release;
• Published with industry-standard metadata reflecting the text’s open access availability;
• Fully indexed for searching on the web; and
• Published under a Creative Commons license at the time of first release.

Application Procedures

Step 1: Apply

This introductory form will allow us to make a preliminary determination regarding your eligibility and reply with a request for further materials as required.

Apply for funding

Step 2: Provide supplementary material

After we review and approve your initial application, we will contact you by email to secure necessary supplementary material. In most cases, we will require two supplementary items: a copy of the book proposal and a copy of the signed publishing agreement.

Step 3: Sign open access amendment to the publishing agreement

Because the publishing agreement is between you and the publisher, both you and the publisher need to sign an amendment that defines the criteria for the open access version of your book. We will provide a form.

In order to receive funds for open access publishing of the monograph the publisher will:

• Provide the final digital files for the monograph, as well as any individual multimedia files used in its composition, for deposit in the University of California repository eScholarship
• Distribute digital files of the book (PDF and ePUB3 where possible) on one or more of the following platforms immediately upon publication:
  • JSTOR
  • OAPEN
  • MUSEOpen
  • HathiTrust Digital Library
• Acknowledge the funding support through the UC Davis Library in the front matter of all editions of the book.

Step 4: Library provides payment

When your manuscript is accepted for publication, the library will submit payment directly to the publisher.

Step 5: Share your book widely

Once published, readers everywhere will be able to read and learn from your book, free of charge and without delay. Congratulations!

See what other UC Davis authors had to say about how open access publication expanded the reach of their works.

Frequently Asked Questions