ASPCA Open-Access Publishing Fund (OAPF)

The ASPCA is pleased to announce a new funding opportunity to support research that advances animal welfare. The ASPCA Open-Access Publishing Fund (OAPF) is designed to support the dissemination of results of innovative and impactful animal welfare research. The program will subsidize article processing charges for selected articles, up to $5,000 per article. OAPF funds apply to publication and processing fees for open-access, scholarly, peer-reviewed articles. 

Applications will be considered in the order in which they are received. 

Applications will be reviewed by a panel of animal welfare researchers and appropriate content experts. Applications should provide enough detail for the peer reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the proposed manuscript and its potential impact on animal welfare, including consideration of: 

• Alignment of research with the ASPCA’s mission and goals
• Demonstrated need 
• Likelihood manuscript will be published 
• Potential reach and impact if published

Funding Amount

The program will subsidize article processing charges for selected articles, up to $5,000 per article.

Eligibility

Eligible Applicants: 

• We invite applications from any field as long as the research has direct and compelling relevance to animal welfare, with application in the United States (USA). 
• Applicants must be citizens or residents of the United States or Canada.
• Applicants may be independent researchers or a part of any of the following:
  • Public or private academic institutions
  • Other research institutions whether public or private
  • Animal welfare organizations, human service organizations, etc.
  • Government agencies
• Applicants should be able to demonstrate preparedness to produce scholarly work at a publishable standard, meeting all applicable ethical and regulatory requirements.
• Applicants may hold any role in their institutions/organizations--including, but not limited to, academic faculty, research scientists, research scholars, and graduate or undergraduate students working on mentored research projects. 
• Applicants may be successfully funded by the program only once per calendar year as the primary author.
• Funds will be dispersed directly to the publisher.

Eligible Journals: 

• Journal must be a quality, peer-reviewed scholarly journal. For example, indexed journals following transparent publishing standards suitable for their scope and reaching an audience appropriate to the research goals are suitable.
• To be eligible, a journal must provide unfettered access to the article immediately upon publication. 

Eligible Articles:

• Both empirical and review papers are eligible. Other manuscript types may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• Within 6 months of receiving funding approval, articles must be submitted for publication with confirmation of receipt. 
• Applicants must not have paid the publisher already. Payment will come directly from the ASPCA to the publisher; no reimbursements will be made.
• All funding under this opportunity will be made public and awarded authors will be asked to include a statement in the final published paper that open access funding was provided by the ASPCA.
• Submissions are especially encouraged from the following priority areas: cruelty prevention and response, animal sheltering, applied animal behavior, increasing access to affordable veterinary care, community cats, equine welfare, and farm animal welfare.

Note: The ASPCA® was founded on the belief that animals are entitled to kind and respectful treatment by humans. Acting effectively on that belief requires a commitment to fostering a collaborative and compassionate culture and to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We welcome and encourage diverse candidates to apply for our grant opportunities in the interest of working together to improve the lives of animals in need.

Download full requirements (PDF) 

Application Review Timeline

Applications will be considered in the order in which they are received. 

How to Apply

Complete an application via the link below.  As part of your application, you will be asked to provide the following:

• Brief explanation (500 words) of why you are seeking funding to publish your manuscript in an open-access journal
• Name of the journal to which article is being submitted and rationale for publishing in this journal
• Names of all authors and their affiliations and a brief CV of the lead author (and optionally for other authors)
• Disclosure of funding sources that supported the research, with an explanation of why funding was not available for open-access publishing of the paper 
• Total charges for open-access publication and total amount requested

Note: The maximum dollar amount that the fund will pay for a single article is $5,000 USD.

• A complete draft manuscript. The manuscript should be substantially complete and able to be submitted within a period of no longer than 6 months. It should not require any further substantive development but does not need to be completely finalized, copyedited, or formatted for submission.

Funded Research:

• Dezubiria, P.; Amirian, S.; Spera, K.; Crawford, P.C.; & Levy, J. (2022). Animal shelter management of feline leukemia virus and feline immunodeficiency virus infections in cats. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 9, 1003388.

• Ellis, J. (2022). Beyond “Doing Better”: Ordinal Rating Scales to Monitor Behavioural Indicators of Well-Being in Cats. Animals, 12(21), 2897.

• Hladky-Krage, B., & Hoffman, C. (2022). Expectations versus Reality of Designer Dog Ownership in the United States. Animals, 12(23), 3247.

• Torgerson-White, L., & Sánchez-Suárez, W. (2022). Looking beyond the Shoal: fish welfare as an individual attribute. Animals, 12(19), 2592.

Please email your questions to us with the subject line "OAPF inquiry."

Please note that Airtable will not allow you to save your work and return later to complete your application.  We suggest having all the requested information (above) prepared before entering to submit your application.