The setup energy expended among those institutions that have launched Open-access Funds to date has been relatively modest.   Policies and procedures must be established as outlined above, often in consultation with various campus actors.  A protocol for handling Fund requests needs to be created.  If the application process is to take place online, this must be built and tested.  Frequently asked questions and other marketing materials must be created to explain the program.  For each of these activities, you must determine who will own the task.  In addition, the various undertakings must be coordinated by a project manager.  This is not to imply that such a position is a full-time role. To the contrary, institutions that have set up Open-access Funds to date have indicated that oversight of the Fund’s creation takes up only a small piece of the designated manager’s time over a one-to-three month period.  Often, though by no means always, Fund project management is assigned to the scholarly communication librarian, consistent with other aspects of that position’s portfolio.  Indeed, there are potential synergies with self-archiving, institutional repositories, publishing, and other programs in which the scholarly communication librarian may be engaged.

Whoever is ultimately assigned the task of managing your Open-access Fund’s creation, he/she will want to keep track of at least the following project components:

• Drafting of policies, procedures, and eligibility requirements
• Vetting of above with relevant campus units
• Development and testing of application process
• Creation of marketing materials
• Development of application vetting process
• Creation of fund disbursement protocols
• Securing of actual funds

Once the Open-access Fund has been created, the system for vetting and processing applications must be overseen.  Again, institutions that have set up Open-access Funds have indicated that management of the Fund takes up only a small piece of the designated manager’s time.  Among the tasks that he/she must perform or ensure that others perform are the following:

• Vetting of applications to ensure eligibility/compliance
• Outreach activities to promote the Fund among eligible authors
• Responding to authors’ questions
• Verifying actual publication of article
• Disbursement of funds
• Tracking results

While it is difficult to quantify precisely how much time the processing of a Fund application will take, the experience of other institutions generates a very rough rule-of-thumb of 15 to 45 minutes per article from initial submission through payment.  The investigation of journal/publisher policies and establishing the affiliation of multiple authors are among the tasks that can impact the time invested on a per-article basis.