Daniel Perez (MSI Student Council) and Andrea Wirth (UNLV University Libraries)
Over the last decade, UNLV has reached many significant milestones—designation as a Title III & IV Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) in 2012; designation as both an Asian-American and Native-American, Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) and a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in 2015; and attainment of R1 (very high research activity) status within the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education in 2018. In the spirit of these designations, the MSI Student Council and the UNLV University Libraries are pleased to introduce the MSI Graduate Student Open Access Fund. This fund aims to help promote publishing activity among all graduate students at UNLV, with an eye towards minority and historically-underrepresented students at UNLV—a demographic with documented lower rates of academic publishing (https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2017/04/minority-grad-students-less-likely-submit-work-publication).
Academic publishing, as known by all faculty at UNLV, is a core tenant of the academy as a means for both disseminating original research and functioning as one aspect of career advancement. Peer-reviewed publications represent both a major aspect of advancement within the academy and a necessity for candidates on the academic job market (tenure-track or otherwise). Additionally, the opportunities to publish open access are growing with an increase in open access journals and increasing support for wide, public, dissemination of research results. As a complement to the UNLV Open Article Fund for tenured and tenure-track faculty, the MSI Graduate Student Open Access Fund provides graduate students at UNLV an opportunity to further publications as a developing professional in their field of study. Through this fund, a maximum of $1,000 can be applied towards meeting article publishing charges (APCs) within a peer-reviewed open access journal, with funds available starting December 1, 2020. Due to limited funds, an author is limited to one award within a 12-month period. In addition, first-time applicants will be given preference with funds dispersed on a first come first serve basis.
For more information regarding eligibility and guidelines for this fund can be found at: https://guides.library.unlv.edu/openaccess/msi-apcfund. The MSI Graduate Student Open Access Fund application can be found at: https://forms.gle/8QkuUjfHtWAtHTvR8.
