Application forms and instructions for a SSHRC pilot project “Aid to Open-Access Research Journals” are now available.
Value: Up to $25,000 over 1 year
Deadlines:
Faculty of Education Dean’s Office: At least one week prior to SSHRC deadline (2-3 weeks prior if you wish to have feedback on your application).
Research Western: At least 3 days prior to SSHRC deadline
SSHRC: June 30, 2007
Description/Objectives:
The objectives of this program are to:
- assist journals offering barrier-free access to peer-reviewed scholarship in the social sciences and humanities;
- increase readership, both nationally and internationally, for research journals that publish original scholarship in the social sciences and humanities;
- allow SSHRC to test a new funding model and approach to adjudicating grant applications from research journals, in preparation for the revised research journals support program, which will be launched in 2008-09.
This new funding model uses the scholarly article as its base unit. SSHRC recognizes that it is primarily by way of scholarly articles that intellectual debate and inquiry are fostered. It also recognizes that an electronic journal’s total operating expenses are, in large part, directly related to the number of articles it publishes.
As per the new funding model, funds will be awarded to help defray the costs of publishing scholarly articles. Grants are to be considered a contribution to the journal’s operating costs for production and distribution. Eligible expenses include those related to:
- management of the peer-review process (including honoraria provided to support staff);
- editing (including staff salaries, release time and travel expenses);
- purchasing software;
- preparing copy (including typesetting, copy-editing and translation);
- document layout (including image presentation, and converting images to digital formats);
- technical assistance;
- marketing and other promotional activities;
- electronic-publication service providers.
For this program, an “open-access journal” is defined as a peer-reviewed academic publication that does not charge readers, either individually or through institutions, a subscription or any other type of fee to access the content of the publication.
The journal must provide this access, via the Internet, immediately upon release of the publication. Journals that use a “moving wall” arrangement to provide access only after a delay, or that only provide open access to back issues, are not eligible for support.
Also for this program, an “article” is defined as a record of previously unpublished, high-quality, original research or scholarship that has been accepted for publication after a rigorous process of peer review. The adjudication committee will apply this definition to determine what is or is not a research article.
To be eligible for support under this program, a journal must:
- meet the definition, given above, of an open-access journal;
- contribute to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge by publishing high-quality, as-yet-unpublished research, in fields supported by SSHRC, that meets international scientific or scholarly standards;
- submit each article to be published to a rigorous, arm’s-length peer-review process;
- have published, in the two years prior to the application deadline, a minimum of four issues, each having at least three articles or, for those journals not distributing research results by issue, at least 12 articles;
- have a minimum of 250 regular readers, as demonstrated through a detailed web-usage report or other verifiable documentation;
- have an editor-in-chief who is affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution, and who is an established researcher in the social sciences or humanities, or both;
- have an editorial board responsible for the intellectual direction and content of the journal, with the majority of the board’s members affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution;
- be published primarily in English or French, or both.
More information and application forms…
Link to ROLA
Posted by kueneman 
Posted by kueneman 
Posted by kueneman 