The Scholarly Publication Fund assists faculty members with the costs of scholarly publication. It is open to researchers at UBC Vancouver and Okanagan in SSHRC-aligned disciplines.
Publishers and academic presses often request subventions (partial subsidies) to support the costs associated with monograph publishing, including costs associated with the use of images, copyrighted materials, or special production elements. The Scholarly Publication Fund is intended to support researchers, particularly early-career researchers in the social sciences and humanities, to secure appropriate funding for these costs. The fund aims to support research and scholarship aligned with SSHRC’s General Guidelines for Subject Matter Eligibility.
Up to $75,000 will be available each academic year (ending August 31, 2026) through the Scholarly Publication Fund.
Starting February 4, 2026, the Fund will take applications any time during the academic year until it is exhausted, or until August 31. Available support for each application depends upon funding and is not guaranteed.
Eligibility
Applicants must be at UBC Vancouver or UBC Okanagan and must be the primary (submitting or corresponding) author. They should be
- tenure-track faculty in the Research Stream or Educational Leadership Stream,
- librarians and archivists with confirmed/confirmation-track appointments.
UBC co-authors who are not a primary (submitting or corresponding) author are not eligible, and should encourage the work’s primary author to seek alternate funding sources. Term, visiting, honorary and emeritus faculty; postdoctoral fellows, research associates and lecturers; staff members; and students are ineligible to apply for the fund.
Applicants can only receive a maximum of $7,000 from the Scholarly Publication Fund within a two-year period.
Eligible works
To be eligible to receive support from the Scholarly Publication Fund, works must be:
- peer-reviewed publications (books, book chapters, edited volumes, and journal articles)
- already accepted for publication at the time of applying to the fund,
- related to research areas supported by a SSHRC grant or align with the SSHRC subject-matter eligibility guidelines.
Other subject disciplines are ineligible and should seek alternate funding sources. Research funded solely by NSERC and/or CIHR is ineligible. Commercially oriented works, textbooks, or trade publications are also ineligible.
Funds will be awarded only when no other funding is available to the author for scholarly publication. 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.
Supported costs
Applicants can request funding in support of the following costs involved in publishing a work: 1) subventions and 2) other publication costs. Only a single application is required to request funding for one or both types of costs, up to a combined total of $7,000.
Subventions are defined as costs required for publication where the publisher’s contract explicitly requests or requires an author payment in order for the book to be published.
Other publication costs cover the expenses for adding material or engaging services that would not otherwise be available. These include professional indexing, copyright clearance/permissions, preparation of camera-ready text or graphics, obtaining translations or illustrations, or preparation and reproduction of materials such as maps that would enhance the publication.
Priority will be given to monographs where subventions are required for publication.
Ineligible Costs
The following costs are ineligible for this fund:
- Travel, marketing or advertising, equipment, supplies, purchase of copies;
- Faculty members’ or assistants’ time writing or conducting research; and
- Article processing charges (APCs) or cost of publishing in open access books and journals.
How to apply
To apply to the Open Access Fund, the applicant must log in to VPRI’s online application system, UBC Research + Innovation Apply using their campus wide login (CWL), and follow the instructions provided.
Applications will be accepted until the funds are exhausted or August 31, 2026.
Applicants should consider/exhaust other sources of funding before applying to this fund.
Application Components
Application Components
- Applicant information
- Information about the scholarly work
- Publisher details
- Copy of the signed publisher contract or notice of acceptance for the work in PDF format (please ensure you erase confidential personal information such as your SIN)
- Outline of publishing costs as follows:
- Book subvention: a budget from the publisher showing the subvention amount, if applicable
- Other publishing costs: an invoice or quote prepared by the publisher or service provider, if applicable.
- Letter of acknowledgement signed by the Department/Unit Head.
Contact
Stacey Herzer
Manager, Internal Research Competitions
Office of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation