Milner deal supports opportunities for open access publishing

  • Author By Grace Allbaugh
  • September 20, 2021
Open Access symbol
One area of the publishing industry that has generated considerable discussion is article processing charges (APCs), fees paid by an author or their institution to a publisher to make their article Open Access.

Milner Library has struck a deal with the academic publisher IGI Global for a new collection of electronic materials to be made available to Illinois State University students and faculty in the coming year. According to the Evidence-Based Acquisitions agreement, IGI will make its entire eBook collection available to the Illinois State community for the next 12 months. These titles will be available as full text documents that can be used by multiple users simultaneously, making them an excellent resource for teaching or individual research. During this time, Milner librarians will collect usage data to determine which of these titles are the most useful and relevant for research and course work.

At the end of the year, librarians will consider the data collected and choose the titles most heavily or frequently used to add to the library’s permanent collection. For those interested in browsing the available titles, IGI eBooks can be found in the library catalog or with this link that takes users directly to the collection. Users will also be able to find this link in Milner’s A-Z Database list in the New/Trial Databases section. Illinois State faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to explore this collection and use titles that support their academic endeavors.

Open Access Waivers

As part of this larger deal, Milner librarians were able to secure three Open Access (OA) waivers to be used by Illinois State scholars who seek to publish their work in an IGI journal or eBook. Members of the ISU community have already published more than 170 works in IGI journals and eBooks, and this deal will make it easier for more content to join that collection. These waivers will allow authors to publish their work, retain their copyright, and make the work accessible to all audiences for free. All article processing charges typically paid by the author, institution, or funding body to publish a work OA will be taken care of for these works.

These waivers will be implemented with no extra steps on the author’s part. After the article or chapter has gone through peer review and is accepted for publication, Milner librarians and IGI representatives will collaborate to identify content by ISU faculty. The selected authors will then be contacted and informed about the availability of the waiver. Authors will simply need to confirm their interest in using it. Even content not originally submitted as OA titles will be eligible for review and selection.

Questions?

For more information about these waivers or the IGI eBook collection, please contact Associate Dean for Information Assets Rachel Scott at rescot2@IllinoisState.edu. If you would like more information about publishing in open access, reach out to Milner’s Scholarly Communication Team at isured@IllinoisState.edu.

More from the Scholarly Communication Team at Milner Library

Units

Milner Library, Research and Sponsored Programs, Scholarly Communication