Publishing and Copyright

This Open Access Week, UGA Libraries proudly announces a new read and publish agreement with a major academic publisher, covering fees for faculty and students whose articles are published open access with the Association for Computing Machinery.

The deal is one of a growing number of transformative agreements for the University of Georgia Libraries that couples patron access to read academic journals with article processing fees required to publish research in an open access publication.

The addition of the Association for Computing Machinery, which publishes more than 50 peer-reviewed journals devoted to the fields of technology, artificial intelligence, and computing, brings the total number of open access publishing opportunities to more than 1,800.

“Open access publishing unlocks knowledge, and allows researchers to share their work with scholars around the globe,” said Camila Livio, scholarly communications librarian for UGA Libraries.

A biography about a groundbreaking judge and a nonfiction narrative of how Black patients experience racism in the health care system have been named the year’s best books dedicated to issues of social justice, as winners of the 2023 winners of the Lillian Smith Book Awards, presented by the University of Georgia Libraries.

UGA faculty, staff, and students now enjoy full digital access to the New York Times via free online subscription through the UGA Libraries. The subscription also includes access to The Athletic, the online sporting news publication owned by the publisher. Register for your New York Times account at this link, by choosing University of Georgia — Athens, GA from the drop-down menu and entering your UGA email address.

For decades, microfilm stations at local libraries have unlocked history for Georgians. Scanning through the old editions of newspapers preserved on film, a grandmother can find her favorite childhood dessert recipe because she remembered her mother read it in the newspaper, siblings can piece together their family tree and genealogy projects for the next generation, and schoolchildren can look up what happened in their town on the day they were born and how much groceries cost in the advertisements.

Since 1953, the Georgia Newspaper Project at the University of Georgia Libraries has microfilmed more than 100 community newspapers, providing free access to the stories of the state’s small towns, big cities, and close communities. But with an 11-year backlog and outdated equipment no longer in production, the future of the project is in flux, and librarians are seeking partnerships to transform the practice using 21st century technology.

The UGA Libraries’ course reserves services help faculty to provide students with easy, no-cost access to readings and supplementary research materials personalized to class curricular needs. Materials planning and support services are currently open for summer and fall semester courses, including an electronic reserve option that can be integrated into eLC. Requests submitted by July 21 are guaranteed to be available by the first day of fall semester classes.

Two publisher agreements through University of Georgia Libraries will allow UGA researchers new no-cost opportunities to provide open access to their published research.

The contracts, known as “read and publish” or “transformative” agreements, go beyond subscription access, also covering open access publishing fees for UGA authors. The new agreements are with Cambridge University Press and Wiley, which is among the largest scholarly journal publishers. UGA-affiliated researchers whose papers are accepted by one of the more than 1,750 journals in the publishers’ catalogs are eligible to have their article processing charges (APCs) covered for articles published January 2022 to December 2024.

A celebrated book of short stories and a nonfiction book exploring racism encountered in transportation systems in America have been named the 2022 winners of the Lillian Smith Book Awards, which honor the top literary and scholarly works dedicated to issues of social justice.

The Georgia Review, a literary journal based at the UGA Libraries, was awarded the 2022 American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) Award for Fiction at an awards ceremony April 5.

UGA Libraries’ course reserve services allow faculty to enhance their instruction with additional readings and supplementary research materials, while cutting down costs for students. For faculty planning Spring 2022 courses, course reserve services and support are currently open, and requests submitted by December 3 are guaranteed to be completed and accessible by the first day of spring semester classes.

University of Georgia faculty members are encouraged to submit applications for the fourth round of the Provost’s Affordable Course Materials Grant program, which is administered by the UGA Libraries and the Center for Teaching and Learning,

Through the Provost's Affordable Course Materials Grant program, faculty members can receive $5,000 to support the transition from costly course materials such as textbooks to educational resources that are free for students or cost less than $40.

More information on the program, as well as the application form, can be found on the Provost's Office website. Applications are due December 1, 2021, and recipients will be notified of their funding status in January 2022.