The Murray State University Libraries will soon begin to offer funding assistance for open access publishing where financial barriers would otherwise prevent it. Generous, continued support from Murray State University Alum Mrs. Lana Porter will allow us to fund approximately two to three faculty authors annually. The program chair is AJ Boston.
This fund is available to Murray State faculty members who are the sole, primary, or corresponding author of a peer-reviewed article or chapter while affiliated with the University. In addition, a limited travel support award is available for authors using recognized, no-fee open access methods.
The Office of Research and Creative Activity is also providing additional funding for student authors who are sole, primary, or corresponding authors or co-authors on a faculty member’s work.
This program will launch on December 4, 2025.
A Request for Comment process was available between November 4th and 21st, 2025.
Some publishers charge a fee to publish an open access article or chapter which can be unaffordable for many researchers, especially those without grant funding. For these cases, we offer up to $1,000 to be used toward such fees. A Murray State faculty member or student must be either the sole, primary, or corresponding author to be eligible. If a Murray State student is listed as a co-author in addition to the applying author, we offer up to $500 in additional support.
Funds for Open Access Assistance may be awarded at the time of payment or retrospectively. For retrospective payment, the article or chapter must have been published no longer than two calendar years prior to the application date (and no earlier than the year 2025). Funds will be distributed from the Library to the author’s home department, but may pay the fee directly in certain cases.
The application for Open Access Fee Assistance can be found at this link.
Some publishers do not require fees to publish open access and some offer policies allowing authors to deposit articles and chapters in open access repositories without fees. Authors who choose such options may apply for up to $400 in conference travel assistance. This is available only to Murray State faculty members who are sole, primary, or corresponding authors. (ORCA offers separate student conference travel support.)
This support is intended for authors publishing in journals that operate under the "Diamond Open Access" model or allow "Green Open Access" self-archiving. For the Green OA route to be eligible, the self-archiving must be performed according to the publisher's publicly outlined guidelines and deposited into a repository which does not require readers to log in. Funds will be distributed from the Library to the author’s home department, but may pay the fee directly in certain cases.
The application for Conference Travel Support can be found at this link
Author and Affiliation Requirements. The applicant (faculty member or student) must be the sole, primary, or corresponding author of the work. “Murray State University” must be listed as the author's affiliation.
Funding Limits. Any given article or chapter may only be successfully used as evidence one time. Individuals are limited to receive funding once every three academic years. If OA Fee Assistance is received in AY 2025-26, the applying author will not again be eligible until AY 2028-29. If Prof. Racer received funding this year for Article A, the authors of Article B may still be eligible the next year, even if Prof. Racer is listed as a co-author.
Exclusions for Funded Research. Articles made OA through grant funding are not eligible for this Open Access assistance, nor are articles with funder-related automatic deposits. Publications arising from grant funding may still be eligible if the grant did not include any OA policies or payments.
Publisher Criteria. It is important that we do not fund or encourage low quality or predatory publishing. We trust that individuals have the best understanding of what is good for their careers, but we do prefer that the journal or book publisher be listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals or the Directory of Open Access Books or another recognized index beyond Google Scholar. In lieu of indexing, testimony from a departmental or college/school head attesting that the publisher meets standards may be given.
Priority. If the total amount requested by qualifying applications exceeds the available funding for the academic year, preference will be given to applicants falling into one or more of the following categories:
First-Time Publishing
First-Time Open Access Publishing or Depositing
First-Time Recipients of this fund
First-Generation Students or Faculty
Qualifying candidates who cannot be funded during the application year may have their application rolled over to the next academic year.
History
From 2018-2024, this award served to recognize Murray State faculty members or staff who have made significant contributions to scholarship through open access formats. Award recipients were chosen based on their pattern of open access publishing, archival in our institutional repository, and open access work that demonstrated high impact. This award was established by a generous gift of Lana Porter, a Murray State alumnus who is a strong supporter of our faculty, staff, and students, and who sought to give back in the area of technology and with the Libraries. This award was superseded in 2025 by the Lana Porter Open Access Assistance Fund, which pivots toward catalyzing open access publishing activities, especially in first-time cases.
Lana Porter Open Access Initiatives Award Recipients (2018-2024)
2024 - Dr. Cemil Kuzey, Computer Science & Information Systems
2023 - Dr. Rupkatha Bardhan, Occupational Safety & Health
2022 - Dr. Christopher Craig, Management
2021 - Dr. Ismail Karabas, Management, Marketing and Business Administration; Dr. Christopher Lennon, Biological Sciences; Dr. James Humphreys & Dr. William Mulligan, History (TIE)
2020 - Dr. Gary ZeRuth, Biological Sciences
2019 - Dr. Kate S. He, Biological Sciences
2018 - Dr. Azaher Molla, Applied Health Sciences & Dr. Sean Rife, Psychology (TIE)
