Important Change to BioMed Central Institutional Membership

Since March 2006, the Health Sciences Library has supported open access publishing in BioMed Central journals through a Prepay Membership. This type of membership lets UNC authors submit articles with the option of indicating that the entire Article Processing Charge (APC), due at the time the article is accepted for publication, would be paid by UNC-Chapel Hill's Prepay Membership.

As of June 1, 2008, the Health Sciences Library changed from a Prepay Membership to a Supporters Membership. This type of membership still gives UNC authors a 15% discount on the APC due at the time the article is accepted for publication, but the remainder of the charge must be covered by the submitting author.

The Health Sciences Library is making this change in order to continue supporting open access publishing whether this occurs in BioMed Central journals or other venues. Under the Prepay Membership, the Library had to repeatedly replenish the account to keep pace with increased publishing activity by UNC authors, which went up by 79% over the past 12 months. This arrangement has become completely unsustainable due to its rapidly spiraling, unpredictable costs. Under the Supporters Membership, the Library pays an annual flat fee based on the number of science and medical researchers and graduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill. This fee secures the 15% discount on the APC but is capped and predictable.

Any articles submitted to BMC journals prior to June 1 will still have the APC covered by the Prepay Membership, even if the article is accepted for publication after June 1.

Authors submitting articles June 1 or later may be able to use grant funds to cover the APC since many funding agencies now allow this type of expense (http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/about/apcfaq#grants). Eligible authors can also apply to the UNC-Chapel Hill Authors' Open Access Fund (http://www.hsl.unc.edu/Collections/ScholCom/OAFundAnnounce.cfm) to request up to $1000 to help defray the APC.