UBC Scholarly Publication Fund

Program Link: https://scholcomm.ubc.ca/ubc-scholarly-publication-subvention-fund/

Sponsor: UBC Library with funding support from the Vice-President, Research & Innovation and the Provost and Vice-President Academic, UBC Vancouver through the Academic Excellence Funds.

Value: Up to $5,000 for direct subvention support. Up to $2,000 for other publication charges. Individuals and co-authors are limited to $7,000 in funding within a two-year period

Description: The UBC Scholarly Publication Fund is established under the auspices of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation in order to assist UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan faculty members with the costs of scholarly publication.

Subventions are partial subsidies toward the cost of publishing scholarly works, and are commonly requested by publishers and academic presses to support the costs associated with monograph publishing. Support for other publication costs can enhance the work through use of images, copyrighted materials, or special production elements. Researchers often report difficulty securing appropriate funding sources for such costs, particularly early career faculty in the humanities and social sciences.

This new fund is intended to address such needs and support publications directly aligned with SSHRC’s General Guidelines for Eligibility of Subject Matter for SSHRC and Eligibility of Applications Related to Health.

Important deadlines

Applications are adjudicated three times yearly.  Application deadlines are 4:00pm (Pacific Time) on

October 15, February 15, and June 15.

Late applications will not be considered, but will enter the pool for the next round unless the applicant requests withdrawal of the application.  Normally applicants will receive responses within 4-5 weeks following these deadlines.

Types of funding available

Eligibility requirements

• Peer-reviewed publications (books, book chapters, edited volumes, and articles) directly aligned with the above SSHRC subject guidelines are eligible for funding. When requesting funding for a subvention, monographs will be prioritized over other scholarly works.
• The author or at least one co-author must be tenured/tenure-track faculty members in the Research Stream or Educational Leadership Stream or librarians and archivists with confirmed/confirmation-track appointments.
• Early career and pre-tenure faculty members have priority.
• Funds will be awarded only when no other funding is available to the author for this purpose.
• Subventions will not normally be awarded to a book which has received, or for which the publisher intends to apply for an Awards to Scholarly Publication Program grant.
• Individuals and co-authors are limited to $7,000 in funding within a two-year period.

Exclusions. This fund is intended to support direct costs of publishing scholarly works.  It does not support:

• travel, marketing or advertising, equipment, supplies, purchase of copies
• commercially-oriented works, textbooks, or trade publications
• faculty members’ or assistants’ time writing or conducting research
• article processing charges (APCs) or cost of publishing in open access books and journals.

Groups not eligible to apply include term, visiting, honorary and emeritus faculty; post-doctoral fellows, research associates and lecturers; staff members; and students.

In the case of UBC co-authorship, normally the primary author should seek funds for publication.  However, should there be reasons for a co-author to apply, the adjudication committee will consider an application, with a rationale given in the section of the application describing the importance of the work to research and career development.

Additional conditions

The following conditions accompany the award and must be accepted by the recipient:

• Support for Subventions and Other Publication Costs will be paid to a grant account in the faculty member’s name.  The faculty member will make payments to the publisher or others (copyright holder, indexer, etc.) for subvention or other costs.  Costs incurred one year prior to or one year following the award date are eligible for payment from the fund.
• The faculty member agrees that the funds will be returned to the University if the work is not published for any reason, within 60 days of receiving such notification.
• The faculty member agrees to acknowledge support from this fund within the publication, such as on the CIP page or in the acknowledgements.

Support will depend upon funding availability and is not guaranteed.

Complete this online APPLICATION  FORM with the following required documents attached:

1. Copy of the signed publisher contract or notice of acceptance for the work (please ensure you erase confidential personal information such as your SIN);
2. Budget summary. For a book subvention, a budget from the publisher showing subvention amount; for other publishing costs, an invoice or quote prepared by the publisher or service provider;
3. Research Project Information Form signed by the applicant, the department/unit Head, and the Dean.  The Funding Source is the “VPRI” and Funding Program “UBC Scholarly Publication Fund.” More information about completing the RPIF is available here.

PDF format preferred. Mailed applications will not be considered.

Contact: If you have any questions, contact The Fund Coordinator at scholarly.communications@ubc.ca