A fund to support publication of research from institutions in developing and transition countries.
The Information Program of the Open Society Institute (OSI) is pleased to announce a grants' program inspired by the principles of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.soros.org/openaccess/). To support open access to international research and scholarship, OSI will provide funding to support 50 Public Library of Science Institutional memberships for institutions in developing and transition countries (please see list of countries below
Authors from the least developed countries (please see http://www.un.org/special-rep/ohrlls/ldc/list.htm for a complete list) will receive a waiver of the publication charge upon request, a policy the Public Library of Science has had in place since its inception. The Public Library of Science (http://www.plos.org/) currently publishes PLoS Biology and will accept papers for PLoS Medicine and other discipline-based journals beginning in the spring of 2004. The Institutional memberships will provide the following benefits to the recipient institutions:
1. The right for any of the institution's research staff or students to automatically qualify for a publication-charge waiver when their manuscript submitted to any of the Public Library of Science journals is accepted for publication.
2. The right to list all the relevant publications generated at the institution on a special page on the Public Library of Science web site, customized with the institution's name.
3. The Institutional membership grants will be for twelve months.
Guidelines for funding:
1. Institutions must be engaged in research in the biological and/or medical sciences.
2. A geographical balance will be sought in funding.
Institutions interested in applying for a grant for Institutional membership should submit the following information to Melissa Hagemann (mhagemann@sorosny.org):
* brief description of institution, including size of biological and/or medical science departments
* contact name at institution
* list of faculty in the biological and medical sciences
Selection process:
* Decisions on funding will be made on a quarterly basis. Applications will be due on April 15, June 15, September 15, December 15, with memberships starting on the first of the month following receipt of application.
List of countries in which institutions are eligible for support:
- Albania
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Bulgaria
- Cameroon
- Cote d'Ivoire
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Estonia
- Georgia
- Ghana
- Guatemala
- Hungary
- Indonesia
- Kazakhstan
- Kosovo
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Latvia Macedonia
- Moldova
- Mongolia
- Namibia
- Nigeria
- Peru
- Poland
- Romania
- Russia
- Serbia and Montenegro
- Slovakia
- South Africa
- Swaziland
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- Uzbekistan
- Vietnam
- Zimbabwe
