Open Access publication fund for books
In accordance with its Open Access policy, the University of Graz supports researchers in making their research results openly accessible. The publication fund supports the publication of Open Access books (Gold Open Access).
To be eligible for funding from the Open Access Publication Fund for Books, the following requirements must be met:
As the author or editor of the book, you are a member of the University of Graz and expect to remain affiliated with the university until the book is published.
Full funding of the publication through third-party grants (e.g., from the FWF) is not possible.
The publication is a primary publication in the form of an academic monograph or an anthology with a clear thematic focus.
The quality of your publication will be assured through an appropriate review process, e.g. by an editorial board or by peer reviewers, including an independent external peer review by experts in the field.
The publisher guarantees that your publication will be made permanently available online, worldwide and free of charge (Gold Open Access) immediately after publication, under a contractually ensured Creative Commons licence, and will receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and an ISBN.
The publication should be consistent with the "Empfehlungen zu Qualitätsstandards für die Open-Access-Stellung von Büchern" and must be included in the Directory of Open Access Books.
You have specified "Universität Graz" or "University of Graz" as your affiliation in the publication (see the affiliation guidelines). The support from the University of Graz is mentioned in an acknowledgement in your publication.
If you and your publisher meet the eligibility requirements, please submit a funding application. To make a funding decision, we need the following from you:
a form with details of the book (pdf) to be completed by you
two offers from different publishers - this means that the publishers are required to complete the form Publishing Offer for an Open Access Book Publication.
Submission deadline: the 15th of every odd-numbered month (Jan. 15, Mar. 15, etc.)
Funding depends on the available budget and is decided on a case-by-case basis.
Applications should be submitted no later than three months before the contract is signed. Please note that publication costs already paid cannot be refunded.
Some publications are not eligible for funding, for example:
- Festschriften
- textbooks
- non-fiction books for a non-academic audience
- reprints
- new editions
- works of purely local interest, such as community and town chronicles
In exceptional cases, dissertations may also be supported, provided they have been evaluated as "Very Good," are revised for book publication, peer-reviewed, and relevant to a broader professional audience. Qualification theses such as master's and bachelor's theses are published on the publication server of the University of Graz, uniPUB, and are not eligible for funding by the publication fund.
Funding is awarded on a competitive basis, and there is no legal entitlement.
Grants are available for two years from the date of approval.
Every funded publication is also uploaded to the uniPUB repository.
In contrast to Open Access and general publication costs, expenses for producing printed copies are not covered.
You submit a funding request with the required attachments. Please fill out the "details of the book (pdf) form and, if possible, obtain two publishing offers from different publishers. Upload these files as attachments when submitting your request for funding (online form in uniYOU).
The university will review the submitted proposals every two months.
If your request for funding is approved, it is your responsibility to ensure that the funding acknowledgment appears correctly in the publication.
Please send the invoice or the publisher’s contact information to the University Library’s Publication Services Department as soon as the publisher charges the publication fees.
The University Library provides the publisher with the necessary billing information (SAP purchase order number and billing address).
The publisher sends the invoice with the required billing information to the University Library. (If you receive the invoice directly from the publisher, please inform the publication services department and do not pay the invoice yourself!). The invoice will be processed through the standard electronic invoice workflow.
Please notify the publication services department once your book has been published. The article will be uploaded to uniPUB, the University of Graz publication server.