In an effort to allow greater access to research, Cornell University Library and the Office of the Provost announced on Sept. 1 that they have established a $50,000 fund to help Cornell faculty and student researchers pay publication fees for open-access journals.

In the traditional model of scholarly publishing, the cost of publishing is paid for mainly through subscription fees, which inevitably pose a barrier to access. Open-access publishing is an alternative model that makes its materials free for everyone. To cover the cost of publishing, however, certain open-access journals have to rely on charging authors publication fees.

Open access — the free availability and use of library materials online — took another step forward this month when the Cornell University Library dropped restrictions on the reproduction of public domain items from its collections.

The Library no longer requires users to secure permission or pay any accompanying permissions fees to reproduce or publish material from its digital collections. This announcement, which comes amidst plans by the Cornell Library Board to establish a fund to support open access publishing, has been eagerly received by many in the online community.

According to a press statement, “the Library, as the producer of digital reproductions made from its collections, has in the past licensed the use of those reproductions.”

This month, President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that would make the National Institutes of Health public access policy permanent, signaling a move towards greater transparency in academia. Under this policy, NIH-funded research, including work by Cornell faculty, will be publicly avaliable. However, another bill introduced in Congress last month seeks to reverse this public access policy and has prompted Cornell’s librarians to take action.

Since last April, the NIH required final, peer-reviewed manuscripts arising from research it funded to be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication.