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Learning patterns/Paying for an open license for academic research related to wiki

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Paying for an open license for academic research related to wiki
problemWhen should an author pay open access fees for wiki research?
solutionWhen certain conditions are met, requesting a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation to pay the fee is appropriate.
creator• Bluerasberry
endorse
created on19:46, 30 December 2016 (UTC)
status:DRAFT

What problem does this solve?

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Grants from the Wikimedia Foundation cannot be routinely promised, but in some situations, the Wikimedia Foundation will offer grants to cover open access fees for the publication of academic research.

What is the solution?

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Various benefits come from academic publishing, including increased distribution, peer review, and increased respectability for the article.

Typically, readers cannot access academic publishing without paying a fee to read unless a paper has an open access license. In cases when an academic paper is of interest to the Wikimedia community, it can be worthwhile for Wikimedia community funds to cover the open access fee.

Things to consider

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Open access fees are expensive and by nature Wikipedia seeks to avoid paying traditional publishing costs. Using Wikimedia community funds to pay an open access fee runs counter to the philosophy of Wikipedia. If community funds are to be used in this way, someone needs to make an argument about why it would be beneficial to use scarce funding to pay a fee like this.

When to use

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Consider applying for a Wikimedia Foundation grant to pay an open access fee if the following conditions are met:

  1. You are publishing academic research
    1. You already have done the research
    2. You already have written your paper
    3. You anticipate that your research will be accepted for publication in an academic journal
  2. Your research is about Wikimedia projects and related Wikimedia issues
  3. You have done your research in partnership with the Wikimedia community
    1. You already have Wikimedia community support
    2. Stakeholders in the Wikimedia community want access to your research
  4. You have verified that publishing in a journal which requires fees is the best option
    1. You have considered and discounted other, lower cost publishing options
    2. You have reason to believe that certain journals charging fees can reach a relevant audience for this research
    3. You have wiki community support to publish in the journal of your choice
  5. You have an outreach plan for following up with publication
    1. You will distribute the article in Wikimedia community channels
    2. You have partners in the Wikimedia community who will also help distribute the research

None of these conditions are requirements, but collectively, all of these points are worth considering and contribute to an argument that asking for community funds through the WMF is worthwhile.

Endorsements

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See also

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Wikimedia Foundation grant requests for open access fees

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References

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