Scholarships and Grant

Open Access Author Fund 

The West Virginia University Libraries are committed to providing open access to research for anyone anywhere. The Open Access Author Fund (OAAF) is intended as an aid to open access to scholarly content published by WVU authors.

Eligible Authors:

Funds are available for faculty, staff, postdoctoral associates, and students served by the West Virginia University Libraries and its regional libraries.

Each applicant may only be funded once per fiscal year, regardless of the amount awarded.

Faculty may only be funded once each fiscal year as a first author.  A faculty member can appear as a co-author on more than one submission, particularly on papers that have one of their graduate students as the first author.

Any authors who are unsure about whether they are an eligible author should contact     Marian Armour-Gemmen prior to submitting an article for publication.

Applying for Funds:

Once an author has a manuscript accepted by a qualifying journal, he or she should immediately apply for open access funds using the application form. The OAAF Committee in the University Libraries will review the applications and vet and prioritize them based on criteria for eligibility, guidelines, and available funding. Authors will receive notification of decision via email within 3 business days. The decision of the Committee is final.

Teaching and Learning Commons Open Educational Resources Grant

West Virginia University Libraries (WVUL) and the Teaching and Learning Commons (TLC) are partnering to support the use and development of Open Educational Resources (OER) through a grants program for instructors. The grants goal is to encourage development of alternatives to high cost textbooks, lower the cost of college for students, and support faculty who wish to implement new pedagogical models for classroom instruction, and grant applications which highlight Appalachia-related content or focus are highly encouraged.  Grants are given in one of three categories - Incorporate, Innovate, and Create.

Proposal Evaluation:

• Completed submissions will be evaluated by members of the WVU Libraries OER Committee. Awardees will be selected based on the narrative responses to the proposal questions and in accordance with this review rubric .
• Impact of project measured by overall potential savings to WVU students
  
• Quality and strength of the application and requirements
  
• Sustainability of the resource beyond initial use
  
• Innovative teaching/learning activities

Participation Requirements:

• Sign/agree to a grant award letter and contract.
• Attend a post award half-day workshop to learn about ways to locate OERs, discuss open licensing and copyright, and answer questions about technological and research support.
• Write a final grant report that includes a narrative summarizing the accomplishments and challenges of your experience using the materials as well as the impact on your teaching and student performance.
• Participate in assessment of the grant program.
• Survey students at the end of the semester in which you utilize the new course materials to assess their experience.
• Deposit any openly licensed materials created, including syllabus, into an appropriate open repository (e.g. the Research Repository @ WVU, Open Textbook Library, OER Commons, etc.).
• License developed materials with an appropriate Creative Commons license (link to CC will be here) of the grantee’s choice.
• Participate in the WVUL/TLC OER Grant Poster Presentation during TLC “Celebrate” May 2023 and deposit posters in the Research Repository @ WVU.
• Participate in assessment of the grant program.