ASPCA Open-Access Publishing Fund (OAPF)

Eligibility

Eligible Applicants

We invite applications from any field as long as the research has direct and compelling relevance to animal welfare, with application in the United States (USA).

Applicants must be citizens or residents of the United States or Canada.

Applicants may be independent researchers or a part of any of the following:

• Public or private academic institutions
• Other research institutions whether public or private
• Animal welfare organizations, human service organizations, etc.
• Government agencies

Applicants may hold any role in their institutions/organizations--including, but not limited to, academic faculty, research scientists, research scholars, and graduate or undergraduate students working on mentored research projects. 

Applicants may be successfully funded by the program only once per calendar year as the primary author with funds being directly dispersed to the publisher.

Eligible Journals

The journal must be a quality, peer-reviewed scholarly journal. For example, indexed journals following transparent publishing standards suitable for their scope and reaching an audience appropriate to the research goals are suitable. Further, the journal must provide unfettered access to the article immediately upon publication. 

Eligible Articles

Both empirical and review papers are eligible. Other manuscript types may be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Within 6 months of receiving funding approval, articles must be submitted for publication with confirmation of receipt. 

Applicants must not have paid the publisher already. Payment will come directly from the ASPCA to the publisher; no reimbursements will be made.

All funding under this opportunity will be made public and awarded authors will be asked to include a statement in the final published paper that open access funding was provided by the ASPCA.

Submissions are especially encouraged from the following priority areas: cruelty prevention and response, animal sheltering, applied animal behavior, increasing access to affordable veterinary care, community cats, equine welfare, and farm animal welfare.

Summary

The ASPCA is pleased to announce a new funding opportunity to support research that advances animal welfare. The ASPCA Open-Access Publishing Fund (OAPF) is designed to support the dissemination of results of innovative and impactful animal welfare research. The program will subsidize article processing charges for selected articles, up to $5,000 per article. OAPF funds apply to publication and processing fees for open-access, scholarly, peer-reviewed articles. 

Application Review Timeline 

Applications will be considered in the order in which they are received. 

How To Apply 

Complete an application via the ASPCA link. As part of your application, you will be asked to provide the following:

• Brief explanation (500 words) of why you are seeking funding to publish your manuscript in an open-access journal.
• Name of the journal to which article is being submitted and rationale for publishing in this journal.
• Names of all authors and their affiliations and a brief CV of the lead author (and optionally for other authors).
• Disclosure of funding sources that supported the research, with an explanation of why funding was not available for open-access publishing of the paper. 
• Total charges for open-access publication and total amount requested.
• A complete draft manuscript. The manuscript should be substantially complete and able to be submitted within a period of no longer than 6 months. It should not require any further substantive development but does not need to be completely finalized, copyedited, or formatted for submission.

*Important Note: Airtable will not allow you to save your work and return later to complete your application.  We suggest having all the requested information (above) prepared before entering to submit your application.

Resources

Please email your questions/inquiries to the ASPCA with the subject line "OAPF Inquiry" for further assistance.

Overhead

N/A (Not Applicable)

Application deadlines

Program application deadline

NOTE: Consult your Faculty Associate Dean (Research) (ADR) regarding Faculty-specific deadlines and submission processes.

Principal Investigators: Complete a Research Management System (RMS) record, including a copy of your complete application, and submit this for approvals in RMS.

Postdocs, students, and trainees: For fellowships and externally-sponsored research training awards or opportunities, you must complete the Research Funding Application Approval (RFAA) Trainee PDF form, and submit it, along with a complete copy of the application, to Research Services at rsotrainee@ucalgary.ca. Trainees should not use RMS at this time.

Approvals: The University of Calgary requires that all funding applications be approved prior to submission. Approval requires signatures via either RMS or the RFAA Trainee form, in the following order:

• Principal Investigator
• Department Head
• Faculty ADR/Dean
• Research Services (on behalf of the Vice-President Research)

Read the Meaning of Grant Signatures policy to understand what your approval means. Please see the agency guidelines for details about which signatures are required on your application, as it may differ from internal requirements.

Late submissions: Late submissions will only be accepted in cases of medical or family emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances. If you submit your RMS record to Research Services after the internal deadline has passed, you must secure additional approvals. Please read: Late Applications Process.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

Applications will be reviewed by a panel of animal welfare researchers and appropriate content experts. Applications should provide enough detail for the peer reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the proposed manuscript and its potential impact on animal welfare, including consideration of: 

• Alignment of research with the ASPCA’s mission and goals.
• Demonstrated need.
• Likelihood manuscript will be published.
• Potential reach and impact if published.