Institutions approaching the creation of an Open-access Fund must consider a number of important issues from the outset.  First and foremost, what are your goals for the Fund?  Are you trying to change faculty publishing behavior?  Are you seeking to provide modest encouragement to new forms of scholarly communication?  Do you want to maximize the access to materials created by members of your institution?   Is the Fund part of a broader campus strategy to promote new publishing alternatives? 

Knowing why you aim to launch a Fund sounds simple, but it will inform many of the important decisions that will shape the program, including budget, policies, and eligibility.  For example, if the primary goal of your Open-access Fund is to heighten the visibility and accessibility of your faculty’s scholarship, then your institution should seriously contemplate paying all author charges from all types of publishers – including commercial publishers who offer a hybrid “open choice” option –  in order to optimize access.  However, the goal of your Fund may be to change the economics of publishing by providing a mechanism that, if broadly replicated, would reduce the risk for journals transitioning to full Open Access.  In this instance, the Fund should perhaps support only fully OA journals and not hybrids.  As the Key Policy Decisions section of this report enumerates, there are myriad operational possibilities in the creation of a Fund.  Understanding your ultimate goal will help create a clear path through this potential thicket.

A second important consideration in the creation of an Open-access Fund is the funding itself.  From where is the money going to come?  Will the library support the project out of its general fund?  Can dedicated gifts be raised?  Will other campus units (e.g., the Office of Research, individual departments) contribute, and, if so, what are their interests and expectations?  How viable are these sources in terms of long-term funding?  Is the Fund an experiment?  Is there a cap on the amount that can be spent, or the duration of the project?  Is there a plan to make the Open-access Fund sustainable?  Knowing who is contributing what and for how long will help you frame the project.   This will inform staffing decisions, the marketing message, and a host of other issues.

A third important consideration concerns communication.  In creating an Open-access Fund, it is necessary to understand the level of engagement your community has on Open Access issues.  To what extent do faculty understand what Open Access is?  Do they recognize why it matters?  Have certain departments begun developing an OA publishing culture?  Do others view new publication models skeptically?  Will an educational outreach campaign need to accompany the Fund’s rollout, or will authors be lining up to apply for funding? Understanding existing campus perspectives regarding Open Access will help you plan the Fund’s launch (and the resources necessary to accomplish that launch) accordingly.